Ibey texted 30 escorts on night Pikuyak was killed, crime analyst testifies

On the night Savanna Pikuyak died, the man accused of killing her — fuelled by alcohol and drugs — attempted unsuccessfully to contact 30 different escorts, an Ottawa court was told Thursday.

Nikolas Ibey, 35, is charged with first-degree murder in the Sept. 11, 2022, death of Pikuyak, 22. Just days before, she had moved from Sanirajak to Ottawa to study nursing at Algonquin College and was renting a room at Ibey’s house in the Nepean area.

Ibey has pleaded not guilty. His jury trial is in its second week.

On Thursday, Crown prosecutor Michael Purcell spent nearly four hours reading text messages Ibey sent the night of Sept. 10, 2022, and into the next morning.

Pikuyak’s body was found by police at Ibey’s house at approximately 10 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2022. The Crown has said she was beaten and strangled.

After texting female acquaintances and getting no response, Ibey began a flurry of texts to what Crown witness Alyson Yaraskovitch, a crime intelligence analyst for the Ottawa Police Service, said were “escorts.”

Starting at around 7 p.m. on Sept. 10, Ibey began searching for escorts online, then proceeded to text them and sometimes phone them.

Purcell painstakingly read out each of the texts Ibey sent to 30 escorts that night, as Yaraskovitch read back the responses.

In them, Ibey repeatedly told them he was high, he was drunk and he wanted sex, often describing in graphic detail what he wanted.

On multiple occasions, he told them he was too drunk to drive when they suggested he come to them.

From 7 p.m. on Sept. 10 until at least 2:41 a.m. the next day, Ibey texted multiple escorts, often simultaneously.

As court wrapped up for the day at 4:20 p.m. Thursday, Purcell noted he had still a few more text exchanges to go through.

He is expected to finish reading them out when the trial resumes Friday at the Ottawa courthouse.