Murder suspect gave grisly details

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — A macabre picture began to emerge Wednesday at a triple-murder trial with the Crown telling a jury the suspect confessed to police that he killed all three victims: a father and daughter and a senior.

Derek Saretzky is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Terry Blanchette, who was 27, two-year-old Hailey Dunbar-Blanchette and 69-year-old Hanne Meketech.

The Crown said in its opening statement that Saretzky had inside knowledge of the deaths in September 2015. “He provided details to the police that only the killer would know,” prosecutor Photini Papadatou told the jury.

Jurors heard as well that Saretzky took police to a remote area where the girl’s remains were found in a campsite firepit.

Saretzky, 24, is also charged with committing an indignity to the girl’s body. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

Papadatou said Blanchette’s body was found in his Blairmore, Alta., home by his father, who let himself into the house after failing to reach his son for hours. “William Blanchette found his son’s body in the main bathroom of his residence lying in a pool of blood. He was clothed and partially covered with a blanket,” Papadatou said. Blanchette’s throat had been cut. After his initial confession to police, Saretzky took officers to the campsite, which is partially owned by a family member, and re-enacted what he had done to the girl, said Papadatou.

The agreed statement said several bones, a knife, a hatchet and burned material were found in the firepit. A metal pot and a yellow child’s toy nearby tested positive for Hailey’s blood.

Court heard a search of Saretzky’s apartment found a number of books, including one on cannibalism and another on serial killers. A measuring cup was recovered that had Saretzky’s blood in it.

Police found a notepad which in part read “Chy” — the nickname for Hailey’s mother — “Terry” and “The hideous baby.” All had been crossed out. No possible motive for the killings emerged from the agreed facts.

Earlier, the trial was told that Meketech was found lying in a pool of blood in her bedroom. One of her dogs was lying across the body.