- A neighbour saw Beverley Dyke sitting outside her house a day after Crown prosecutors say she was killed nearly 26 years ago, a jury was told Monday.
- Greg Kalen testified he was fixing his bicycle outside his Fawcett Avenue apartment building when he saw Dyke, 48, sitting on the curb in front of her house. He is positive that she was alive and well on the afternoon of May 16, 1984.
- Kalen, who had to refer to his 26-year-old police statement to refresh his memory, said he was struck by Dyke’s “odd behaviour.”
- “She was just sitting there for an hour ... going back and forth to the front doorstep of her house,” Kalen said.
- Crown pressed Kalen to concede he might have been mistaken about the date he saw Dyke.
- “If I said it, I believe it to be true,” Kalen said.
- The Crown has previously stated their theory that Dyke, 48, was attacked on May 15, then discovered in a wooded area near the Winnipeg airport May 17.
- "I have absolutely no reason to lie," Kalen said when pressed by prosecutor Brian Wilford about the accuracy of his evidence. Kalen disputed suggestions he might be mistaken about the date, saying he vividly recalls seeing Dyke that day.
- "She was going back and forth from her front door to the curb. Because of her odd behaviour I looked out my apartment window a few times," he said.
- The Crown has previously stated their theory that Dyke, 48, was attacked on May 15, then discovered in a wooded area near the Winnipeg airport May 17.
- "I have absolutely no reason to lie," Kalen said when pressed by prosecutor Brian Wilford about the accuracy of his evidence. Kalen disputed suggestions he might be mistaken about the date, saying he vividly recalls seeing Dyke that day.
- "She was going back and forth from her front door to the curb. Because of her odd behaviour I looked out my apartment window a few times," he said.
- Another defence witness, entomologist Gail Anderson, also cast doubt on the Crown’s theory of when Dyke was killed. Anderson said the presence of certain insects in Dyke’s body suggested she was killed sometime between the afternoon of May 16 and the early morning of May 17.
- The defence alleges Dyke’s real killer was a man named Leonard White, a woman-hating convict who confessed to the murder in 1988. White died in 1999.
- Jurors were told Monday that White was hospitalized on May 17, 1984 after slashing his wrists. According to an agreed statement of facts, White provided hospital staff with no “intelligible” reason for the suicide attempt.
- Robert Kociuk, 68, is on trial accused of raping and stabbing Beverley Dyke to death on May 15, 1984 and leaving her half-naked body in a wooded area near the Richardson International Airport after his DNA was matched to the semen found on Dyke's body. He was arrested in 2005 and has now pleaded not guilty to first degree murder.
- Kociuk denied in a videotaped police interview having any contact with Dyke, but his lawyers have now conceded a DNA match. No further explanation or evidence has been given to jurors about that issue and Kociuk was not called to testify in his own defence.
- Kociuk was initially interviewed as a potential suspect because police saw him in the area where the killing occurred the afternoon of May 16 -- the day Kalen insists he saw Dyke alive. Kociuk had been under police surveillance for armed robbery and claimed he was meeting someone to buy a gun for his next heist. Police found a knife in that area that they believe was linked to the stabbing, but investigators soon lost the weapon, which has never been recovered.
- Kociuk denied in a videotaped police interview having any contact with Dyke, but his lawyers have now conceded a DNA match. No further explanation or evidence has been given to jurors about that issue and Kociuk was not called to testify in his own defence.
- Kociuk was initially interviewed as a potential suspect because police saw him in the area where the killing occurred the afternoon of May 16 -- the day Kalen insists he saw Dyke alive. Kociuk had been under police surveillance for armed robbery and claimed he was meeting someone to buy a gun for his next heist. Police found a knife in that area that they believe was linked to the stabbing, but investigators soon lost the weapon, which has never been recovered.
- The Crown and defence have now closed their cases. Closing arguments are set to be heard Wednesday.
- Jurors should start their deliberations on Thursday after the Judge gives her charge to the jury.
- Jurors should start their deliberations on Thursday after the Judge gives her charge to the jury.
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