Prosecutor delves into Facebook messages
Man accused of killing mother of 5
The daughter of a woman who was allegedly murdered by her boyfriend testified Tuesday about the increasing concern her family had over her missing mom.
Renee Peters was taken through her final Facebook communications with her mother and with Daniel Alphonse Paul, 45, who has pleaded not guilty to the 2015 second-degree murder of Crystal Rose Paul, 36.
Under questioning from Crown counsel Daniel Mulligan, Peters said that one of the last Facebook messages she got from her mom stated, “I love you my sweet, forever and ever” on Jan. 29, 2015.
The next day she said she sent her mom a message asking her about some of her favourite crackers and got a brief reply about the wrong type of crackers.
On Feb. 4, 2015, Peters — who was born in 1995 and was her mother’s eldest daughter — said she sent a message to the mother of five saying she was sick and that she loved her. She did not receive a reply.
On Feb. 18 that year, she sent a Facebook message to Daniel Paul telling him she hadn’t heard from her mom since late January.
“Oh really,” replied Daniel Paul on a Facebook message read out in court by Mulligan. “K. I’ll tell her when she wakes.”
In her Facebook reply, Peters said: “Awesome. Thank you so much. How are you lately?”
Daniel Paul replied: “Trying to keep busy.”
It is the Crown’s theory that in the Facebook messages Daniel Paul was lying and trying to conceal the murder and that the fatal beating occurred closer to Jan. 29, 2015, due to the fact communications between Peters and her mom ceased soon afterward.
At the time of the communications, Peters was living on Sto:lo Nation reserve lands near Hope while her mom was living with Daniel Paul at his apartment on East 22nd Avenue in Vancouver.
On Feb. 20, 2015, Peters sent a message to Daniel Paul telling him her family was concerned about her missing mom and was thinking about filing a missing person’s report, the jury heard.
Daniel Paul’s response was to say, “that’s silly” and indicated Crystal Paul hadn’t been able to contact anyone since they’d pawned off her phone, court heard.
The trial is expected to continue today.