Blood, DNA evidence reviewed at Ibey murder trial

Crown lawyer Sonia Beauchamp continued to press Ottawa Police Service forensic investigator Sgt. Yannick Bernard over blood and DNA evidence Friday during Nikolas Ibey’s first-degree murder trial in Ottawa.

Ibey, 35, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the Sept. 11, 2022, strangulation death of Savanna Pikuyak, 22, who less than a week earlier had moved from Sanirajak to Ottawa to study nursing at Algonquin College.

Over Thursday and Friday, Bernard spent the equivalent of nearly an entire day in court reviewing the evidence he found at 34C Woodvale Green, about two kilometres south of the college, where Pikuyak was renting a room from Ibey.

Jurors were shown graphic photos from inside the house as Bernard described the locations where blood and possible DNA evidence was found. Ibey, wearing a white T-shirt and grey pants, sat in the prisoner’s box, hunched over, staring straight ahead for most the morning.

Bernard said Friday that investigators found blood in the upstairs washroom sink, in Pikuyak’s bedroom and on a light switch on the main floor.

Defence lawyer Ewan Lyttle took only 16 minutes to cross-examine Bernard, repeatedly asking him to confirm locations where no blood had been found, which was the majority of the home.

“You agree that you did not locate any wet footprints on the landing area or in the bathroom,” Lyttle asked Bernard.

He also asked Bernard to confirm that two pill bottles belonging to Ibey’s father, James Ibey, were found in Nikolas Ibey’s bedroom and in the basement furnace room.

Earlier in the trial, a text from Ibey to his father was read out in which Ibey said he had “got into the booze and drugs” on the night Pikuyak was killed.

The trial started Tuesday.

In earlier testimony, court heard that that morning Ibey had texted his father, saying “I’m in big, big trouble. I got into the booze and drugs last night and killed my roommate. I’m going to turn myself in.”

As well, an Ottawa police officer described the tense scene as he and other officers arrived at Ibey’s house that morning for a report that a man inside claimed he had killed his roommate and was considering suicide.

They entered the home with their guns drawn and found the body of Pikuyak lying face down on her bed wearing only a shirt and bra that were twisted around her arms and head.

Ibey was arrested at the scene.

When the trial continues Monday, forensic pathologist Dr. Jacqueline Parai is expected to take the stand.