It was a smiling Ian Bush, legs shackled together, who sauntered confidently into the prisoner’s box ready to face day two of his murder trial; the same Ian Bush, the Crown will try to prove, whose image is seen on multiple cameras at the Hurdman transit station the day of the murder
Court heard today some graphic testimony from the first police officers on the scene of that triple murder. And from the condo’s handyman, who the Crown believes may have seen the murderer.
In the hustle and bustle at Hurdman Station, no one gives much thought to the cameras all around.
But they are there and were there on June 29, 2007, the day 77-year-old retired tax judge Alban Garon, his 73-year-old wife Raymonde, and their 78-year-old neighbour, Marie-Claire Beniskos, were hog tied, beaten and suffocated. Charged with their decade old murders is Ian Bush.
According to footage obtained from OC Transpo, , at 10:18 on the day of the murder, video from those cameras show a man walking away from the Hurdman Station, just meters from the condo building at 1510 Riverside Drive where the three murder victims lived. 61 minutes later, he reappears.
Police Forensic imaging expert Mike Ross walked court through the video today, explaining how he zeroed in on this particular person after being tasked with looking for a "person of interest" wearing a white shirt and dark pants.
A handyman then testified for the Crown. Julio Santa Marta had worked at the Riverside Drive condos since they were built more than 30 years ago. He knew the residents well and described the day a man he didn't know got on the elevator with him, in this very secure building. It was June 29, 2007, the day of the murders. However, he could confirm for court that the man he saw that day was Ian Bush.
Santa Marta told court that as the man left the elevator that day ten years ago, he took 3 steps and turned to look at him.
Santa Marta recalls thinking, “Don’t tell me that guy is worried about me,” but thinking nothing more of it. The bodies of the three would not be discovered until the next day.
Ian Bush's lawyer, Geraldine Castle-Trudel then asked Santa Marta, “Look around the courtroom. Do you see the person you saw getting off the elevator in this courtroom?”
He looked slowly left and right, then directly at Bush and said, “No.”
Constable Nicole Gorham-Elder then took the stand for the Crown. She was one of the first officers on the scene the day Garon's brother found their lifeless bodies.
Gorham-Elder says she could smell the odor of de-composition as she and two other officers entered the high-end condo and she clearly knew the victims were dead when she saw them.
“There was a large amount of blood under each victim,” she told court, “ropes around their throats and severe head traumas to all of them.”
We still don't know what the significance is of photos the Crown introduced today that show a man doing finger push-ups. The photo is labelled "Massage Fingers". The Crown says the photos were on a memory stick found by police, hidden in a drop ceiling in Ian Bush's home. The trial continues tomorrow.
