The journey from a crime scene stain to confirmed blood—or DNA—is a complex, carefully guarded and closely documented process, jurors heard Tuesday in the first-degree murder trial of St. Albert resident Beryl Nufola Musila, 33.
Crown witnesses included laboratory experts who worked on identifying stains and DNA in the case of the death of St. Albert senior Ron Worsfold, 75, whose body was found stuffed into a tote at a makeshift dump site in rural Parkland County on July 9, 2017.
Details of the day after Worsfold’s murder came out in court last week.
Crown prosecutors Patricia Hankinson and John Schmidt allege Musila drugged, then stabbed and bludgeoned Worsfold to death — and then, after an interlude of beer, cocaine and sex with a neighbour, the next day hauled Worsfold’s body in a blue Rubbermaid tote around to a handful of places before abandoning it at a makeshift dumpsite in rural Parkland county.
At the trial’s beginning, Musila pleaded guilty to the charge of indecently interfering with Worsfold’s remains.
Ron Johnston works in evidence recovery for the National Forensic Laboratory System, where his duties include identifying, searching for and recovering biological and non-biological materials in criminal cases.
Const. Ken Curlew of the RCMP’s Edmonton General Investigation Section described taking voluntary known blood samples from witnesses Tyler Fisher and Robert Rafters, using a lancet to gather blood from the dominant hand’s little finger, then spattering it directly onto a DNA card.
Cpl. Garek Brett Robertson of the RCMP’s Edmonton Major Crimes unit told of taking a warrant-authorized buccal (saliva) sample from Musila.
Both described the many painstaking measures required to safeguard the chain of custody for evidence once procured.
Forensic science technologist Lindsey March also testified Tuesday, telling jurors about processing DNA evidence spread on cards by cutting out tiny samples and testing them.
March said deciding what and how to test a substance depends on several factors. The colour of the stain in question factors in. Does it resemble blood or body fluid? Is there enough of it to test?
She detailed the process she used to test a piece of dried blood from a blade in the case. Blood was confirmed to be the source of red stains on a number of pieces of evidence, including scissors and a knife blade, she said.
Jacob Musila testifies
The defendant’s father, Jacob Musila, was called as a witness for the prosecution last week.
On Saturday, July 8, 2017, he responded to a call from his daughter.
“She had wanted a bin, she was moving out,” he testified.
Calgary came up in conversation as a possible destination, the elder Musila said.
“Initially, she was wanting to come for (the tote) herself,” he said, adding when she couldn’t get the transport, she asked him to bring it to her.
He said he called before leaving his Erin Ridge home to let her know she was on the way, so she could watch for him.
He didn’t bring the large tote inside to the apartment, however.
“I placed it down on the pavement and stayed in the car,” he said. “She came and took it. We did not speak.”
Jacob Musila said he recognized the large duct-taped tote from the makeshift dumpsite in the Crown’s evidence photo as the same kind of large bins he had in his garage, and that he had brought to his daughter.
The garage sale
Alice Benson testified she was helping her son’s girlfriend hold a garage on Saturday, July 8, 2017, some eight miles west and six miles north of Morinville.
Around 3 p.m., it looked like business was picking up.
“Jeez, there’s a cab coming to our garage sale!” she remarked as the minivan cab from St. Albert taxi pulled up to the driveway.
A slim woman in dark pants or jeans and a lighter coloured T-shirt came up the drive. In court, Benson identified the taxi passenger as Musila.
“Is Brent home?” Musila asked her.
“You mean Blair?” Benson responded.
Her son Blair was gone for the weekend. Benson asked for a name to tell him who stopped by.
“Beryl.”
Fellow garage sale host Lisa Hansen said Musila wanted to ask Blair for a favour.
“She was looking for a ride to Edmonton,” Lisa Hansen said.
Upon not getting a ride lined up, Musila got back in the taxi and drove away, they said.
They paid the taxi driver
Paul and Maureen Balchen testified individually.
Musila had lived with their son common-law for several years, and had two children with him, the court heard.
Maureen Balchen was getting supper ready on Saturday, July 8, 2017, when Musila showed up at the door, accompanied by a taxi driver.
“Beryl didn’t have enough money to pay for the taxi. He had driven her from Morinville to Edmonton to get a U-Haul,” Balchen said.
She recounted what Musila had with her: several small boxes, three larger boxes, a Rubbermaid tote with silver duct tape securing the top to the bottom, a smaller tote, a turquoise knapsack, a black suitcase.
They paid the taxi driver and gave him extra money because Musila wanted to go a few places in St. Albert “for financial help, I believe,” Balchen said.
When Musila came back, she asked the Balchens to give her a ride to a friend’s place at in rural Parkland County.
“We packed up all the gear in our garage into our truck, and we drove her over there,” Balchan said.
After unloading her stuff — including a large blue Rubbermaid tote wrapped with duct tape — Balchen told Musila to call them if it didn’t work out.
‘Let’s call the police’
Yannick Leveille was living in the rural home. He described the post-parole party for Patrick Tansem-Reid, with about a dozen or so people gathered for swimming and drinking and celebrating.
“Rob (Rafters, described by prosecutors as Musila’s boyfriend of four months) came to me and asked me to open the garage door,” he said.
Musila arrived in a pickup truck with totes, boxes, and a black suitcase.
Leveille knew the driver dropping her off was related to the father of Musila’s two kids, he testified.
“I helped unload the belongings in the garage,” he recalled.
“I don’t recall (Musila) unloading, she was watching.”
The largest tote was about two feet 2 feet by 4 feet—heavy, and strapped around and around with duct tape.
“I couldn’t lift it by myself,” Leveille remembered.
The party continued after Musila arrived, he said.
When he woke up around 11 a.m. after a late night, everyone was gone from the house except him and Tansem-Reid, Leveille testified.
The two went to a wooded spot on a trail on the property to move Musila’s tote, he said.
He was expecting to move the containers to a dump site the family used at one corner of the property, but they went down a different trail.
Tansem-Reid grabbed one side, he grabbed the other, and they hoisted it up in the truck.
When they unloaded it, the effect of the torque on the plastic tote twisted it. When they set it down, “the lid opened a little bit. One of the corners kind of lifted open,” Leveille said.
He said he didn’t look in, but Tansem-Reid saw something that made him “jump,” Leveille said.
“After that happened, what did you do?” asked Crown prosecutor Schmidt.
“I told him, ‘Let’s go, let’s call the police … I told him to call the police, because it was for his own good,” he responded.
Leveille said they went straight back to the house.
“Patrick grabbed his phone and called the cops,” he said.
Musila then came back to the house after having left hours before, with Rafters and the host.
Musila then asked him for a ride, Leveille testified.
“She offered me $200 to give her a ride. I told her I couldn’t drive,” he said.
“Did she know the police had been contacted?” Schmidt asked.
“No,” Leveille said.
Amicus attorney Greg Worobec, appointed to ensure a fair trial, but not to be Musila’s defence attorney, suggested to Leveille during cross-examination that Tansem-Reid told him about the contents before he went to help Tansem-Reidmove the tote.
“No,” Leveille responded. “We never thought it … would be like that.”
He identified evidence exhibit photos of the boxes and totes at the makeshift dump site as the belongings Musila had got help unloading into the garage the night before.
Testimony continues in Edmonton’s Court of King’s Bench.
