Douglas Garland murder trial hears burnt circuit board found in ashes would have worked on victims' truck

Aburnt piece of a key fobfound in a pile of ashes on the farm where triple-murder suspect Douglas Garland lived matches one that would have been used by the two grandparents he is accused of killing, court heard on Thursday.

RCMP forensic hardware engineer Kimberly Warrenanalyzed the burnt circuit board and determined it matches one used in the key fobs for five different models of Toyota vehicles, including the 2013 Tundra the same type owned by Alvin and Kathy Liknes.

Nathan O'Brien, 5, AlvinLiknes, 66, and KathyLiknes, 53, were last seen alive when the boy was having asleepoverat the grandparents' homeon June 30, 2014.

Garland is being triedin Calgary on three counts of first-degree murder.

One of his neighbours woke up around 2:00 a.m. on July 2, 2014and noticed a light on in the Garlands' greenhouse,

Brian Kalmbacksaid he considered thatunusual.

Later that day, Kalmbacktestified that he noticed a fire coming from the Garlands' burn barrel that "seemed to be larger with black smoke."

• Douglas Garland killed Calgary couple and grandson over 'petty grudge,' Crown tells jury
• Investigators collected teeth, bone and bloody bedding, court hears during Garland triple-murder trial

Earlier on Thursday, Garland's lawyer Kim Ross cross-examinedlead forensic investigatorConst. IanOxten, whotestified thatnone of the accused'sfingerprints or DNA was ever found in theLiknes' home.

Oxton spent Tuesday and Wednesday testifying as a witness for the prosecution. Heconfirmed to Ross thatno DNA from the missing family members was found on any of the contents of a black duffel bag two sets of handcuffs, a large knife and a leather baton or child-size handcuffs that wereseized from the Garland farm.

It took the officer10 months to siftthrough ashes gathered from the Garland property. On Wednesday,he outlined items he found, including an earring, a bracelet, buttons, a piece of a shackle and more than two kilogramsof biological material, including bones and 17 fragments believed to be teeth.

Officers returned to the Garland farm to seize those ashes from the burn pit 10 months after the initial search.

Oxtontold Ross nobody guarded the ashes to ensure continuity and in fact, Douglas Garland's father continued to burn garbage and dump the ashes in the pit.

Aside from sifting through the ashes,Oxtonwas alsoresponsible for thecollection ofabout 1,400 exhibits as part of Operation Amber, thelargest number of exhibits ever collected for a court case, according to the Calgary Police Service.

Abag of adult diapers, a chemical used to destroy DNA, a powder that causes blood to clot, two empty 50-litre canisters ofliquid nitrogen, and half a bottle of chloroform were among the items collected byOxtonduringsearches of the outbuildings and small sheds on the property.

Earlier in his testimony, Oxton told jurors about other items seized from the Garland property includingincluding a book about how to dispose of a dead body, more than a dozen pairs of handcuffs and other types of restraints, whips, a straitjacket, anesthetic, daggers and what appeared to be two pieces of burnt flesh.

In their opening statement, prosecutorstold jurors DNA from the missing family members wasfound on a saw and two meat hooks on the farm property where Garland lived with his parents.

The exhibits Oxton collected were sent to labs for further testing. Other witnesses will give evidence about DNAresults later in the trial.

Garland was charged with murder on July 15, 2014, after amassive two-week search launched onJune 30, when Jennifer O'Brien arrived at her parents' home to pick up her son to find all three family members missing and bloodstains throughout the house.

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 in the trial that Garland harboured a grudge against AlvinLiknesafter a business relationship soured years earlier.

DNA on farm

Inside theLikneshome, bloody footprints matchedthe shape and size of a pair of shoes missing from Garland's home, an expert testified last week.

On Monday, jurors heard evidence that a Calgary police cadaver dog gave signals he was onto the scent of human remains in several locations on the Garland farm.

• Trial hears cadaver dog indicated human remains found in several spots on farm

• Garland had book on how to dispose of dead bodies

• Bloody footprints 'correspond' with shoes missing from Garland's home, trial hears

WhenRCMPofficers were dispatched to the farm onJuly 5, after Garlandbecame a person of interest in the investigation, theburn barrel wassmoulderingon the property.

Through what prosecutors Vicki Faulkner and Shane Parker have described as "dumb luck," a mapping plane that flew over the Garland property on July 1 and 2, 2014,took photographs that show what the Crown believes to be the bodies of two adults and a child in the grass.

Those photos have not yet been presented as evidence to jurors.

Lawyers Kim Ross and Jim Lutz are representing Garland.

The trial will not sit on Friday. On Monday, prosecutors Shane Parker and Vicki Faulkner will call witnessestogive evidence relating to a hard drive seized from the rafters in Garland's basement.

See the latest updates in live tweets from CBC reporters in the courtroom. On mobile?See theliveblog.