Calgary police amassed 1,400 pieces of evidence \u2013including human flesh, handcuffs, leashes, knives and adult diapers \u2013during their investigation into the disappearance of a Calgary couple and their grandson, jurors in a triple-murder trial heard Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Douglas Garland, 56, is charged with first-degree murder in the disappearance of Alvin and Kathy Liknes and their five-year-old grandson Nathan O’Brien in 2014. Their bodies have not been recovered.<\/p>\n
Const. Ian Oxton told court he was the first forensic investigator at Garland’s parents’ rural property north of Calgary after a search warrant was issued and he spent nine days on the property. He was assigned to the case full time in May 2015.<\/p>\n
Investigators found over a dozen handcuffs, restraints, several knives, a large hacksaw and a leather baton in the outbuildings.<\/p>\n
The hacksaw, which had a 63-centimetre blade, as well as rubber boots, gloves and two shiny meat hooks showed signs of having DNA.<\/p>\n
He said it was the condition of the hacksaw and the meat-hooks that drew their attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were nice and shiny. They were pristine,\u201d said Oxton.<\/p>\n
Oxton revealed more gruesome details about two items found in and around a burn barrel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looked like a piece of burnt flesh but attached to it was a very small piece of a cotton material … a very faded cotton material. The cotton material was a pink colour and the fragment itself was darkened, it was blackened,\u201d said Oxton.<\/p>\n
He said he did a resifting of ashes originally seized by the RCMP from the barrel and found more.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the process I found what I believed to be a small piece of charred flesh, again about the size of my thumbnail,\u201d he said, adding a red liquid came off as he was examining it. Oxton said a test showed it may have been blood.<\/p>\n
Inside the home police searched an office and storage room in the basement. They found a computer hard drive hidden in the rafters and three empty shoe boxes for a size 13 shoe, the same size as the bloody footprints found in the Liknes home.<\/p>\n
Police also found two mannequin heads with long blonde wigs in the Garland office as well as a straitjacket and two whips. In the bottom of a closet there was a pink adult reusable diaper. Eight pairs of size 13 women’s shoes were seized from the basement.<\/p>\n
There were 36 vials of carbocaine, a powerful dental anesthetic amongst the bottles of juice inside the refrigerator.<\/p>\n
On the bookshelf, two books stood out to police, one about how to dispose of a dead body and another about how to manufacture nerve gas and other poisons.<\/p>\n
A row of VHS tapes included a documentary on how to make methamphetamine, another on unsolved homicides and the British comedy \u201cKeeping Up Appearances.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier Const. David Blackwood testified he photographed Garland and seized his clothes after his arrest. Garland had a few scrapes and bruises including on his upper lip, head and his knee, he testified.<\/p>\n
Garland was co-operative, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was calm,\u201d said Blackwood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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