Former bus driver accused of killing Sylvia Lyall in 2004

Pat Anablak spent several days in an apartment with the body of his dead girlfriend in 2004, an RCMP sergeant testified last week at Anablak's murder trial.

Sgt. Mark Tindall said he went to the apartment on June 22, 2004 after a friend of the woman asked him to check her whereabouts. When Anablak, 53, opened the door, the RCMP officer said, "he had misty eyes. It appeared something was wrong." Tindall was accompanied by Sgt. Daniel ­Laurence, who was then a corporal.

When asked where Lyall was, Tindall said Anablak motioned down the hall to the bedroom.

"I asked if Sylvia was OK," Tindall testified. "He said no."

Tindall and Laurence both testified the apartment was warm and had all the windows closed. Both officers reported a strong smell in the apartment.

Tindall testified he found Lyall in the bed with the sheet pulled up to her neck.

Police arrested Anablak, then a bus driver for the now-defunct Iqaluit transit system. He is charged with second-degree murder. During the hearing last week, Anablak, sporting a long grey goatee, and navy-blue track pants and t-shirt, appeared attentive, occasionally whispering questions into the ear of his lawyer Sue Cooper.

Lyall was the youngest daughter of Ernie Lyall, a Hudson's Bay clerk who helped found the community of Taloyoak and helped many Inuit relocate from Cape Dorset to the Kitikmeot.

At the time of her death, Sylvia Lyall had recently turned around a period of career struggles by landing a job as the executive secretary to then-Finance Minister Leona Aglukkaq. Her death stunned Nunavut's political circles and Premier Paul Okalik, who knew Lyall for two decades, issued a statement at the time saying, "her smile and good humour will be deeply missed in the cabinet offices of government."

Lyall's killing also prompted calls from Qulliit, Nunavut's status of women council, for more action on violence against women.

At trial, Edmonton pathologist Bernard Bannach told court that bruises and a fracture to Lyall's neck were consistent with being strangled by a person's hands. He said three to four minutes of constant pressure to the neck would be required to stop the flow of blood to the brain and cause death.

Bannach also said scrapes found on Lyall's elbows, knees and feet occurred before she died.

A woman left the courtroom in tears as Bannach and crown lawyer Brian Bell flipped through a book of autopsy photos, with Bell asking Bannach to comment on the nature and possible cause of each wound.

On the morning after the alleged murder, Anablak's then-boss Scott Henderson testified via video link from Nova Scotia that Anablak arrived late for work, showing up at around 9:30 a.m, after Henderson had to drive one trip of the city bus.

Henderson testified Anablak "was kind of glassy-eyed and smelled of alcohol" but admitted he let Anablak take over the bus and finish his shift, saying he saw no reason why Anablak shouldn't drive.

"I thought he was pretty good, maybe a little hung over," Henderson said.

Julia Augustus, the former office manager for RL Hanson Ltd., which ran Iqaluit's bus service, said Anablak called in sick on the morning of Monday, June 21 sounding "like someone having an asthma attack." Augustus testified by video link from Newfoundland.

Anablak's trial resumes Oct. 3 in Iqaluit, when Sue Cooper, his lawyer, will call an expert witness.