A Prince George RCMP officer recounted a brief conversation he had with Jill Stacey Stuchenko just prior to her disappearance during testimony Thursday in the trial of accused serial killer Cody Alan Legebokoff.
Cst. Mike Hansen, a general duty officer, described Stuchenko as "one of the girls on the street" that he kept an eye on while out on patrol and had been trying to develop a rapport with her over the five or six years she had been in the city.
Hansen said he last spoke to Stuchenko during the early evening of Oct. 9, 2009, just prior to Thanksgiving. She was on foot heading west on 20th Avenue near Queensway when Hansen said he stopped and talked to her for three to five minutes before she moved on.
"I hadn't seen her in awhile so I was trying to keep in touch," Hansen said.
Stuchenko told him she had moved out of town but would not say why, the court heard.
Her body was found Oct. 26, 2009 partially buried in a gravel pit off Otway Road near Foothills Boulevard and the day after, Hanse told a fellow RCMP officer assigned to the case, that she was usually fairly outgoing and active. But he told the court Thursday she was not always that way.
"This time she seemed distracted, did she not?" defence lawyer Jim Heller asked Hansen during cross-examination.
"Yeah, I hadn't seen her in awhile. Normally, you would see her consistently depending on what was going on," Hansen replied. "Over the course of time, you could see her around town but I hadn't seen her for awhile."
The court also heard that in another conversation, Stuchenko told Hansen she had pawned her possessions. While he had no hard proof, Hansen said he suspected she was a drug user.
In a statement given to the jury when the trial began June 2, Crown prosecutor Joseph Temple described Stuchenko as a 35-year-old mother of six, who was also a frequent cocaine user and earned money as a sex-trade worker.
Earlier Thursday, the court heard testimony related to the basement suite of 1500-block Carney Street home where Legebokoff was living at the time of Stuchenko's disappearance.
RCMP Sgt. John Took, a forensic identification specialist said he and two colleagues conducted a search of the home over three days in April 2011, starting with the upper floor on the first day and the lower floor on the second and third.
He said they used various light sources - from powerful white lights to ultra violet and blue lights to forensic lasers - combined with different-coloured goggles to search for clues.
Crown prosecution is alleging Legebokoff murdered Stuchenko sometime over the 2009 Thanksgiving long weekend when the home's three other occupants were away for the three days.
Blood stains were found in the basement suite carpet and in a couch he took with him when he moved to an apartment on Liard Drive in May 2010 and an analysis of forensic evidence from Stuchenko showed DNA from Legebokoff, according to the Crown.
At the time of her death, her home was in the 1000 block of Carney Street , less than three blocks away from where Legebokoff had been living, the Crown also said.
Legebokoff, now 24, also faces first degree murder charges in the deaths of Cynthia Frances Maas, 35, Natasha Lynn Montgomery, 23 and Loren Donn Leslie, 15.
The trial will resume Wednesday at the Prince George courthouse, starting at 9:30 a.m.
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