Police discovered a trove of forensic evidence in Cody Alan Legebokoff's pickup truck and home connecting him to the four young women he is alleged to have murdered, a Crown prosecutor said as his long-awaited multiple murder trial began Monday.
Legebokoff, 24, is facing four charges of first degree murder in the deaths of Loren Donn Leslie, 15, of Fraser Lake, Jill Stacey Stuchenko and Cynthia Frances Maas, both 35. He is also accused of murdering Natasha Lynn Montgomery, 23, whose body has not been found.
The investigation into Legebokoff began as a result of what the accused would later call "extremely bad timing," Crown prosecutor Joseph Temple said during an opening statement to jurors.
Temple said a Fort St. James RCMP constable was travelling on Highway 27 on the night of Nov. 27, 2010 to rendezvous with a Vanderhoof RCMP constable on a routine matter when, at about 9:30 p.m., he noticed a dark-coloured pickup truck turn onto the highway from a logging road.
It did so while "failing to stop or slow down," and travelled south about 10 to 15 km/h above the 100 km/h speed limit. After tailing him for about 10 kilometres, the constable pulled the truck over as the Vanderhoof constable arrived on the scene.
Legebokoff was found in the driver's seat wearing a sweater and shorts. The constable noticed a smear of blood on his chin and drops of blood on his legs, Temple said.
When Legebokoff got out of the vehicle, more blood was found on his legs and shoes, as well as a reddish puddle on the driver's side floor mat. A pat down search uncovered a cellphone with what appeared to be fresh blood on it.
While waiting for him to arrive, the RCMP constables found a backpack in the shape of a monkey head with identification from Leslie inside as well as bottles containing alcoholic drinks - mudslides and white Russians. They also found a pipe wrench covered in snow and blood behind the passenger seat as well as a knife.
By that time, a conservation officer had been called in and Legebokoff was initially arrested on a charge of illegal hunting after he told police he had been poaching deer. When the conservation officer arrived, he was sent to trace the truck's tire tracks on the freshly fallen snow while a third RCMP officer also arrived on the scene.
The conservation officer followed the tracks about 300 metres to a gravel pit and then pursued some footprints down into a shallow depression covered by some bush where he found what turned out to be Leslie's body lifeless but still warm to the touch. Legebokoff was subsequently re-arrested on a charge of murder.
Over the course of his arrest and the five interviews that followed, Legebokoff changed his story.
Upon being told a body was found at the scene, Legebokoff admitted he found a body but maintained he never knew Leslie.
In the first interview, Legebokoff told police he had left work in Prince George and was on the road to see his family in Fort St. James when he decided to check the logging road as a hunting area.
Legebokoff said that when he touched the body and got blood on his shoe, he was worried he would be blamed and took the items from the scene to cover his tracks.
But in the third interview, Legebokoff said he knew Leslie and they met for the first time in person on that night after talking to her through the social media website Nexopia.
According to the Canadian Press, Legebokoff used the name "1countryboy." Legebokoff first sent her a message on Nov. 1, 2010, said Temple.
On the evening of Nov. 27, they exchanged text messages arranging to meet, said Temple, and Legebokoff agreed to bring alcohol. That evening, Leslie was seen at a school playground meeting a man wearing shorts and driving a pickup truck, said Temple.
When Leslie's body was found, her pants were pulled to her ankles, said Temple. An autopsy concluded she died of massive blows to her head, while she also had stab wounds to her neck, he said.
In the third interview, Legebokoff said Leslie killed herself, claiming she went "psycho" and was "freaking out," and was hitting herself in the face and saying she "wanted to end it." According to Temple, Legebokoff told police Leslie then grabbed a knife and stabbed herself in the throat.
"He said he watched her die for some minutes," Temple said. "He did not render first aid, he was stunned. He said he used a tree to cover his tracks in the snow after dragging her into the bush."
In the fourth interview, Legebokoff denied pulling Leslie's pants off and suggested they came off while dragging her body, but said they had consensual sex twice - at the school where he went to pick her up and in the truck.
Legebokoff said they each had two mudslides and then Leslie began hitting herself and then got out of the truck and rolled around in the snow. He said he noticed the knife and then her throat and maintained Leslie hit herself in the side of the face with the wrench.
In the fifth interview, Legebokoff said he did hit Leslie a "maximum two times to put her out of her misery" and then left.
Temple said subsequent searches of Legebokoff's home uncovered blood and other forms of forensic evidence on various types of furniture and clothing, as well as an axe and a pickaxe, linking him to the four victims.
According to the Canadian Press, Temple said an autopsy revealed Stuchenko suffered multiple blows to her head, face and arms. Her DNA was found on blood stains on a carpet in a basement apartment where Legebokoff once lived and on a couch that had been at the apartment when he lived there, said Temple.
Vaginal and anal swabs of Stuchenko's body revealed DNA profiles matching Legebokoff, said Temple, as did testing of a clipping from one of Stuchenko's fingernails.
Temple also told the court Maas died of blunt-force trauma to the head and penetrating wounds. She had a hole in her shoulder blade, a broken jaw and cheekbone, and injuries to her neck that might have been caused by someone stomping on it, he said.
He said Maas's DNA was found on a sweater and a sock found in Legebokoff's truck, as well as a pickaxe tool and running shoes found in his apartment.
Montgomery's DNA was later found in blood stains and stains presumed to be blood located in 32 samples taken in Legebokoff's apartment, including on an axe, Temple said. Her DNA was also found on shorts Legebokoff was wearing when he was arrested in November 2010, said Temple.
Montgomery's parents, Todd Esson and Louanne Montgomery, were the first two witnesses called to the stand on Monday. Crown is alleging Legebokoff murdered her sometime in September 2010 shortly after she had been released from Prince George Regional Correctional Centre.
The court heard Montgomery was in a common law relationship with a man in Quesnel with whom she had two young children but was also addicted to cocaine. Montgomery had been in communication with her family while in custody but that became sporadic after she was let out.
In giving testimony, her mother said Montgomery had expected to be released in September and had been trying to enroll in a rehab program to deal with her drug problem. But those plans went awry when she was released on Aug. 19, 2010 and there was no one there to pick her up.
"Natasha said to me she had a drug problem and she needed help when she got out," a tearful Louanne Montgomery said. "She wanted us to be here when she got out but she was let out when there was nobody around to help her."
Louanne Montgomery twice traveled to Prince George from Quesnel to try to find her at various spots around the city before reporting her missing on Sept. 23, 2010.
