Aerial photos show bodies, Garland prosecutors say

Jurors in the Douglas Garland triple-murder trial are expected to be shown aerial photos on Monday which the Crown will argue reveal the bodies of the three victims on his farm.

In her opening address on Jan. 16, prosecutor Vicki Faulkner detailed the evidence which is expected to emerge this week.

“What you will see and hear about is the multiple pieces of evidence that were located, gathered, and analyzed by police and civilian members, working long and hard hours,” Faulkner said, in outlining the Crown’s case.

“You will also see one piece of evidence that did not come from the meticulous and tireless work of many police officers,” Faulkner told the three-woman, 11-man jury.

“You will see a piece of evidence that was created and found, for lack of a better term, through dumb luck.”

Faulkner detailed how an aerial photography company was doing mapping for the City of Airdrie and flew over the Garland farm on July 1 and 2, 2014.

“You will see the aerial photos during the trial … you will have to look at them and determine what they show for yourself, but the Crown states they clearly show the bodies of Alvin, Kathryn and Nathan.

“Alvin and Kathryn laying prone, face down (on) the grass at the Garland farm — no shirt on, no pants on,” she said. “You will also see a small figure curled up on the grass. The Crown says that is Nathan.”

Garland, 57, is charged with firstdegree murder in the June 30, 2014, disappearance and deaths of the three victims, Alvin, 66, and Kathy Liknes, 53, and their five-year-old grandson, Nathan O’Brien.

It’s the prosecution’s theory Garland violently kidnapped the trio from the Liknes’s Parkhill residence in southwest Calgary because of a long-standing grudge he had with Alvin over an oilfield pump patent.

They say he then took them to the 40-acre Airdrie farm he shared with his elderly parents and murdered them.

Their bodies have never been found.

Monday will represent the beginning of the fourth week of the trial, which is scheduled to last five weeks.