Douglas Garland triple-murder trial hears of bloody handprint on closet door

At knee-level on a closet door, a small bloody handprint was left behind in what appears to have been a violent struggle to get a five-year-old boy and his grandparents out of their home. DNA from the blood matched that of Nathan O'Brien, 5, and his grandmotherKathy Liknes.

DouglasGarland, 57,is being tried on three counts of first-degree murderin the deaths of the boy and his grandparents Alvin and Kathy Liknesin June 2014.

The five-year-old had been leftat the home in southwest Calgary for asleepoveron June 29, 2014. When his mother arrived the next morning, all three were gone and the house was splatteredwith blood.

The bloody handprinthadswiped downward when it came into contact with the closet door, according toSgt. Jody Arns, a blood pattern expert with the Calgary Police Service whotestifiedon Wednesday.

In several areas of the home, DNA from Nathan and Kathy was found mixed together. When Jennifer O'Brien left her son at her parents' home, the grandmother and grandson were sleeping in the same bed together.

Both Alvin and Kathy were dragged through parts of the house,Arns said.

Based on her analysis of the bloodstains,Arns said there were four areas of the home where Kathy was "positionedwhile actively bleeding" and three areas Alvin would have lost significant amounts of blood while stationary.

All three victims were bleeding dripping blood and at times transferring blood onto the walls of the home as they were forced outside.

The blood was in various forms:drips, spatters, dried flakes, smears and pools.

Attempts appeared to have been madeto clean the blood on the kitchen floor with a mop or rag, Arnstold jurors.

Under cross-examination, Arns confirmed to defence lawyer Kim Ross that the victims lost "a significant amount of blood" in the incident but couldn't give a measurement as to how much or how many "impacts" each suffered.

The prosecution's theory is that the victims were taken to theGarland farm, where they were killed and their bodies burned.

Earlier this week, jurors were shown photos of what appearedto be the bodies of two adults and a smaller figure, laid out near three small sheds on the farm. The photos also depicted smoke coming from aburn barrel, as well as the shadow of a person standing nearby.

The images were taken by chance by an aerial-mapping plane on July 1, 2014 the day after the three were discovered missing.

Two weeks after a massivesearch for Nathan and his grandparents began, Garland was arrested and charged.

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Garland is connected to theLiknesfamily through his sister,Patti Garland, who was in a common-law relationship with AlvinLiknes'sson, Allen.

Patti Garland, her parents and AllenLiknes all testified earlier that Garland harboured a grudge against AlvinLiknesafter a business relationship soured years earlier.

After Arns's testimony, two officers from the Calgary police surveillance unit testified about tracking Garland before he was arrested and charged with murder. They had alsobeen asked to get a sample of his DNA.

ConstablesDale Linton andRichard Massicotte said policewere forced to make an arrest when Garland tried to get back onto his family's farm in the early morning hours of July 14, 2014.

Massicottetold jurors Garland bought a flashlight, gloves and a towel at an Airdrie Walmartabout an hour before he attempted to get back onto his farm.

On Thursday, Crown prosecutors Shane Parker and Vicki Faulkner will call their final witnesses another officer involved in the second arrest of Garland and an officer from HAWCS, the Calgary Police Service's helicopter crew.

It is expected defence lawyers Kim Ross and Jim Lutz will announce Thursday afternoon whetherthey will call any evidence.

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