VANCOUVER — A Mountie with British Columbia's integrated homicide team testified she was the officer who served a warrant to obtain DNA from the man accused of killing a 13-year-old girl in a Metro Vancouver park six years ago.
Sgt-Maj. Heather Lew told a B.C. Supreme Court murder trial that she collected a few drops of blood from Ibrahim Ali's finger on Sept. 9, 2018, two days after his arrest and almost 14 months after the girl's body was found.
Ali has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of the teen.
The body of the girl, who can't be named because of a publication ban, was found in Burnaby's Central Park early on July 19, 2017, just hours after her mother reported her missing.
Crown witness and RCMP forensic biologist Christine Crossman testified last month that police obtained a DNA sample from Ali from a discarded cigarette in August 2018 and matched it to an unknown male's genetic material found on the girl's body.
The match led police to obtain a warrant to formally get a sample from Ali, which Crossman said also matched DNA from the girl's body.
Lew told the jury Wednesday that she was a corporal on the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team when the girl was found dead.
She was the lead investigator and had attended the crime scene in the park the day the body was found, she told the trial.
Lew also testified that, at some point, she learned there was a film crew working in the park the day the girl died and officers interviewed all of the workers.
Under cross-examination, Ali's defence lawyer Kevin McCullough asked whether Lew, as the primary investigator, attempted to establish when the girl went to the park.
Lew said officers had viewed all CCTV footage from the area and testified that while there was footage of the girl nearby, no video showed her entering the park.
McCullough then asked, once police had arrested Ali, whether they had again viewed the CCTV footage to determine whether Ali could be seen in any of the footage.
Lew said they had, but agreed with McCullough that there was no video of Ali in or around the park on July 18, 2017.
Lew's cross-examination is expected to continue Thursday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 18, 2023.
Brieanna Charlebois, The Canadian Press
