The second-degree murder trial of Dennis Oland hearing from a forensic identification officer that there were small loose hairs found in between Richard Oland’s fingers during his autopsy.
Sergeant Mark Smith of the Saint John Police, who was at the autopsy held on July 8, 2011, saying those hairs were collected using tweezers and packaged into an evidence container. Smith telling the court about an examination of the body which was also photographed. They were searching for any trace evidence like hair and fibres and were using different types of light to search for that evidence.
Smith also saying that Richard Oland’s hands showed moderate to severe cuts. Along with the injuries to his hands there was a bruise on his left chest area, a small injury to the bridge of his nose and 40 injuries to his head and neck area—there were 49 injuries in total.
Smith says that evening he returned to police headquarters into the forensics section and the exhibits taken from the autopsy were placed in either DNA cabinets or forensics lockers.
Smith also testifying about working to collect evidence like fingerprints and DNA from the Far End Corporation office the day before— the day Richard Oland’s body was discovered.
Smith saying there was a plethora of fingerprints on top of each other so there wasn’t enough detail for him to perform any kind of examination from what was being developed. Smith also telling the court about collecting swabs. The exhibits were loaded into the forensics van and brought back to police headquarters.
Reporter Laura Lyall is covering the Dennis Oland trial and is live-tweeting from the courtroom to her Twitter page and to the CHSJ News and Wave News Twitter pages.
