The pathologist who conducted the autopsy of a 22-year-old Prince George woman killed more than two years ago in her Alpine Village home told a BC Supreme Court judge on Sept. 3 that Isabelle Thomas was found deceased, lying on her back, with her face up, partially on a bed.
Dr. Jason Doyle said on the second day of Zain Xavier Wood’s first degree murder trial that Thomas died of multiple sharp force injuries. Justice Michael Tammen allowed Vernon-based Doyle to testify remotely, instead of travel to Prince George, due to the shortage of pathologists in BC.
Doyle spent much of the morning and into the afternoon describing the injuries Thomas suffered. He showed photographs from the autopsy of the gashes on Thomas’s back, neck and head.
“Injury to the aorta, in particular, is the most significant, and would have resulted in rapid unconsciousness and death,” Doyle testified. “The spinal cord transection would have resulted in instant quadriplegia, meaning someone not being able to use their arms or legs, and probable spinal shock. The other wounds would have resulted in some degree of hemorrhage.”
Doyle said the stab wounds were deeper into Thomas’s tissue than they were long on the surface. There were several wounds on the front and back of the neck and front and back of the chest area, as well as the back and sides of the head.
Doyle focused on two wounds in particular: the front of the chest and into the aorta, which he described as a hose at the top of the heart, and the back of the neck, where the blade cut across Thomas’s spinal cord.
Crown prosecutor Tyler Bauman asked Doyle how long would it take for the stab to the aorta to result in unconsciousness.
Doyle said many individuals will die within seconds of such an injury. Others can survive a little longer.
“Most people would die within a minute or two, maybe a few minutes of this injury,” he said.
As for the spinal cord transection, Bauman asked if it would be fatal on its own. Doyle said some individuals could survive.
“In this case, we can’t know for sure,” Doyle said.
Defence lawyer Tony Lagemaat wondered why Doyle did not give an opinion in his report about whether the weapon was single or double-edged.
“The interpretation or the speculation of whether it's a single-edge or a double-edged blade is best left for discussion in the courtroom,” Doyle said.
Wood pleaded not guilty when the trial began Sept. 2.
In her opening statements, Crown prosecutor Kristina King said that 25-year-old Wood scoped out Thomas’s townhouse twice before returning on July 18, 2025 to invade her home.
King alleged it took 35 seconds for Wood to kill Thomas “in a swift and deliberate fashion” by stabbing her 16 times in the presence of her six-year-old and six-month-old children.
The trial is scheduled to last another 21 days.
