Accused cut victim’s lawn, murder trial hears
LETHBRIDGE Triple-murder suspect Derek Saretzky knew homicide victim Hanne Meketech and even mowed the lawn in the past, his grandfather testified Friday.
Terry Megli, the accused killer’s maternal granddad, said he was friends with Meketech and had known her for decades.
And Megli said his grandson was also familiar with the senior, who lived in the Coleman area of Crowsnest Pass, not far from his own home.
Megli said Meketech would take part in family activities with him and his wife, Judy, including Christmas gatherings, which Saretzky also attended.
“I know that he was at her house to mow lawns … and stuff like that,” Megli told Crown prosecutor Photini Papadatou.
He said Meketech, 69, was “a little simple” but a pleasure to be around.
“She was a very nice lady, she was an animal lover,” Megli said.
“She was a good friend, she had a big heart, if you needed her she was there right away.”
Saretzky, 24, is charged with first-degree murder in the Sept. 9, 2015, beating death of Meketech, who was bludgeoned in her home with a blunt object before being stabbed twice in the neck around the time she died.
A pathologist said the cause of death was blunt force trauma to her head which caused skull fractures and bone fragments to enter her brain.
Saretzky is also charged with first-degree murder of Terry Blanchette, 27, and his two-yearold daughter Hailey DunbarBlanchette.
Blanchette’s body was found Sept. 14, 2015, five days after Meketech’s slaying inside his home in nearby Blairmore, where Saretzky also lived.
Hailey was not in the home and her remains were found at a campground the following day.
Under cross-examination, Megli told defence lawyer Patrick Edgerton that Meketech went through a messy breakup.
“They had a bad divorce. He wanted her trailer. He thought it was his,” Megli said.
“I know she didn’t like him, she made that very clear.”
The accused killer’s grandfather also acknowledged Meketech didn’t get along with one of her neighbours.
“Megli also told Edgerton the deceased inherited cash from her mother some time before her own death.
“All I know is she was given an amount of money from her mother, I think she kept it at home, I’m not sure of that,” he said. “She didn’t trust the bank.” Megli told jurors he wasn’t sure of the exact amount.
“I know it was somewhere around $90,000,” he told Edgerton.
The witness also said Saretzky wanted to visit him and his wife in the days leading up to his Sept. 15 birthday, the day after Blanchette was found dead.
“He was quite insistent he wanted to come see us,” Megli said.
“Were you available to see him?” Papadatou asked.
“Not emotionally,” Megli said. “He was having trouble with alcohol and drugs and I didn’t want that in my house.”
Meanwhile, two other longtime friends of Meketech’s described the senior as “happy-go-lucky.”
Brother and sister Dwight LaRose and Lisa Markowski said the dead woman was a fixture at their mother’s business in Coleman, Chris’ Restaurant.
Markowski said Meketech came every morning around 11 a.m. and if she wasn’t coming she’d call to say so.
She told Papadatou she didn’t show on Sept. 9, 2015, and didn’t call.
The trial resumes on Monday.