In the spotlight today at the Jagtar Gill murder trial, a glimpse of enterprising police work to help detectives catch their suspects. Gill's husband, Bhupinderpal Gill and his alleged lover, Gurpreet Ronald, are in an Ottawa court this week, facing first degree murder charges. A key piece of evidence is a blood-stained weightlifting bar and hidden camera footage of where that bar was found and where it ended up.
It was the surprise discovery of this blood-stained weight-lifting bar, a two-foot long piece of metal, that helped Ottawa Police hatch a plan they hoped would solve a murder.
Constable Julie Dobler with the Forensic Identification Unit testified today that shortly after the murder of 43-year-old Jagtar Gill in her Barrhaven home on January 29,, 2014, Dobler found a metal bar encrusted with blood in the Gill's basement, hidden on top of the family Christmas tree.
The Crown's contention is that Jagtar Gill was stabbed repeatedly with kitchen knives and beaten over the head with this bar by Gurpreet Ronald. Both Ronald and Gill's husband are on trial for first degree murder in this case. They have both pleaded not guilty.
The police quickly seized that original bar then put a replica bar in its place.
“We put sheep's blood on it to resemble the fixed red staining on the original bar", Cst. Dobler said.
On February 4, six days after the murder, police obtained a warrant to set up a surveillance camera in the Gill's basement. On February 6th, the crime scene is released and the home is returned to Bhupinderpal Gill. February 8th, Dobler told court Gill is photographed reaching into that box in the basement. Then on February 9th, Dobler says Gill removes the bar from the box and is photographed in a wooded area where police allege Gill disposed of the bar.
That bar is just part of the Crown's evidence, along with DNA scattered throughout the house and along a trail on an NCC property.
Dobler testified that Jagtar Gill's DNA was discovered on a pair of disposable gloves and on a kitchen knife found by an NCC employee, along with the DNA of a second female.
After Gurpreet Ronald was charged with murder, a warrant was obtained to get a sample of her DNA.
Dobler says police then confirmed that Ronald's DNA was found on a piece of glove at the murder scene, in the master bedroom, the ensuite, the kitchen and the rug where Jagtar Gill's battered body lay.
