The conservation officer who found Loren Donn Leslie's body took the witness stand Thursday at the trial for Cody Alan Legebokoff, accused of murdering the 15-year-old girl and three women.
Cameron Hill said he had been called to the scene of Legebokoff's arrest on the night of Nov. 27, 2010 to deal with an alleged poaching incident but had a tough time buying the story given as he took a statement from the accused.
Legebokoff told him he had quickly driven in and out of an area off Highway 27 between Fort St. James and Vanderhoof to check out a possible hunting area. But when Hill went to trace the route, he found the tracks from Legebokoff's truck went back much farther and began to think he was onto something much bigger.
The jury also heard an audio recording of Hill taking a statement from Legebokoff prior to going out on the search. Hill was already skeptical at that point.
"All these roads are pretty much the same up here, so you drive all the way out here to check out this one little road, you drive down 50 yards to scope [this out]," Hill said at one point.
Legebokoff had told Hill he and a friend had left Prince George after work and, in separate trucks, drove towards Vanderhoof before turning off Highway 16 and onto a logging road somewhere past Bednesti Lake.
He said they came across a mule deer stunned by the trucks' headlights in the middle of the road and his friend pulled out a rifle and shot it from the window of his vehicle.
It was brought down with a single shot to the shoulder, Legebokoff said, but it wasn't dead so they took turns hitting it with the pipe wrench police had found to make the death quicker.
Asked about a multitool with blood on it, also found on Legebokoff, he said he used it to cut the animal but refused to provide any details.
"I'm not saying why or what happened, I just did it," Legebokoff said in the recording.
He told Hill they put the carcass in the box of his friend's truck and he left the scene, intending to dump it somewhere else.
Legebokoff gave Hill a name of the friend but when asked where he lived, could not provide an address, just a description of an area in Prince George.
Legebokoff said he then decided to drive towards Fort St. James, where he grew up, to check out a possible hunting area his grandfather told him about.
"So I did," Legebokoff said. "Went in, turned around, came out, pulled in front of the cops and he pulled me over," Legebokoff said.
Asked why Legebokoff was wearing shorts, he said he just threw them on. Asked to assure Hill the blood found on him and other items was from a deer, Legebokoff replied: "I guess so, yes."
"Obviously it is, I told you what happened," Legebokoff continued in an agitated voice.
Hill told Legebokoff he thought the story was "weird" and advised him to be honest because it was going to be checked out.
"You seem like a fairly sensible guy to me, you seem fairly..." Hill said and Legebokoff intervened: "The reason I'm co-operating is because I just want to go home."
Answering questions from Crown prosecutor Joseph Temple after the recording was finished, Hill said he thought Legebokoff's appearance and demeanour were both unusual.
Despite the winter weather, he said Legebokoff was wearing shorts and running shoes and Hill turned up the heat in his truck because he was shivering a bit. "He was dressed very light," Hill said.
Moreover, Hill said Legebokoff's demeanour was "extremely casual" and "seemed almost bored." Most people he takes statements from are not as polite and respectful as Legebokoff was, Hill said.
After the statement was taken, Legebokoff was taken back to the RCMP vehicle where he had been placed when Hill arrived on the scene. Hill said he went to give police a summary of what Legebokoff told him and when doing so noticed "a bit of a heightened sense of urgency amongst them," and learned they discovered something new in the interim.
In earlier testimony, the court heard police found a small backpack with a stuffed monkey attached to it and, inside, Leslie's blue identification card from the B.C. Children's Hospital. Leslie was legally blind and had also been diagnosed with some mental health issues.
A subsequent search gave police reason to believe Leslie was a missing person.
Because Legebokoff was placed in the only police vehicle with four-wheel drive and because of his experience in tracking, Hill volunteered to drive his four-wheel drive back to where Legebokoff was seen coming out from an unused logging road and speeding south along Highway 27.
Hill said he followed the tire tracks for 300 to 400 metres to an old gravel pit where he could see where the tracks looped around and back out towards the highway through a combination of fresh and old snow. Hill said he could also see where the tracks had stopped at the south end of the pit and footprints coming out of both doors.
"At this point, I was certain I was onto something bigger than what I first thought so I'm kind of anxious to put this behind me and find what's there," Hill told the court.
A dimming flashlight in hand, Hill followed the prints down a ravine to where he could see some "really peculiar tracks."
"It looked liked someone had been kicking snow over something for quite a distance down the hill," Hill said. "It looked like a sideways pushing motion to cover something up."
Hill said he then saw a tiny bit of blood off to the side and could see where something had been dragged into the trees. Hill said he briefly thought a trapper may have set a trap but then found the track led to very thick bush where that would be unlikely.
Hill said he struggled further trying to keep off the track marks, "and then I could see the torso of a body, naked from what appeared to be the waist down." He called out but there was no response and had the feeling the person was dead although he did not get any closer and did not take a pulse.
"There was no sign of life whatsoever," Hill said. "I'm not sure how I knew, I do have a sense from a background in first aid, but I know there were no signs of life there."
Hill said he retreated the 12 to 15 metres back to his vehicle while trying not to contaminate the crime scene and radioed back to Fort St. James RCMP Cst. Aaron Kehler, one the RCMP officers who was with Legebokoff.
"He said 'is it what you thought it was?' I said 'it's what you guys thought it was, worst case scenario,'" Hill said and added an ambulance won't be needed.
Because jury selection was held on Saturday, Judge Parrett decided to give the jury Friday off and the trial will resume on Monday, starting at 9:30 a.m.
