Accused’s sister tipped police to truck linked to triple murder
Family members describe Garland as ‘intelligent’ loner in court testimony
Douglas Garland’s sister told police he drove a distinctive, older-model, green pickup truck, similar to one spotted near the home of a Calgary couple who disappeared along with their grandson, she testified Tuesday.
Patti Garland said she recognized the truck in a photo police released to the news media.
“It’s the green Ford F-150 that my father owned,” Garland told her elder brother’s triple-murder trial.
Douglas Garland faces three charges of first-degree murder in connection with the June 30, 2014, disappearance of Alvin and Kathy Liknes and their five-year-old grandson, Nathan O’Brien.
Patti Garland, who was living common-law at the time with Alvin’s son, Allen Liknes, said she was staying at her parents’ Airdrie farm at the time and the truck was parked outside.
“I had my son, Jordan, take pictures of it and send them to Allen, so Allen could forward them on to the proper police detective,” she told Crown prosecutor Vicki Faulkner.
“How did you feel after seeing the police bulletin?” Faulkner asked.
“Not very good,” the younger sister said.
She said she never spoke to her brother about the Likneses and O’Brien, who at that time were listed as missing persons.
She had come to Calgary from Evansburg, Alta., the previous day, because her in-laws had gone missing.
She said she was in the foyer of her parents’ home when her brother, who also lived there, arrived.
“He came in the door, he glared at me for probably 20 seconds and then he went downstairs,” she said.
Douglas Garland, 56, was arrested the following day after police received the information about the truck, which matched one captured on surveillance cameras in the area around the Liknes’ Parkhill home in southwest Calgary.
Patti Garland, nine years younger than her brother, painted the accused as a loner with few friends.
“Does Douglas have any friends that you’re aware of?” Faulkner asked.
“Not that I’m aware of,” she told court.
The accused’s parents also testified about their son in a similar vein.
But Doreen Garland added that her son was an intelligent man who liked to read books and was handy around the home.
She said he received a bachelor of science degree from Camrose Lutheran College and then moved on to the University of Alberta.
“He was admitted into first-year medicine at the University of Alberta,” the mother said.
“He attended for a month there and then he seemed to have kind of a breakdown, so he left the university. “He’s an intelligent person.” Doreen Garland said the day the Likneses and O’Brien went missing she saw a news report about the Amber Alert related to the boy’s disappearance.
She said she immediately told her son about the report and asked him what he thought.
“He said, ‘I don’t know, I don’t want to talk about the Likneses,’ ” she said.
Under cross-examination by defence lawyer Kim Ross, the mother said she didn’t hear her son leave the home the morning the three disappeared.
The five-week trial enters Day 3 on Wednesday.
It was a subject Patti Garland simply didn’t want to hear about again.
Over the 2013 Christmas holidays, her brother Doug was at it again. He told her that Allen Liknes had stolen some of his property, so he was going to call the police.
“It had been so long,” says Patti, whose brother was still stewing about a patent dispute with Alvin Liknes from more than six years earlier. His inability to let go, she says, drove an even greater wedge between the two siblings. For the next few months, whenever she went to her parents’ house where her then-54-year-old brother resided, she only offered him the occasional hello.
As she delivers her testimony on Tuesday in the triple-murder trial of Douglas Garland, Patti Garland’s voice trembles. It could be sorrow, it could be anger — but it’s likely a very personal mix of those and many other emotions.
In the first-degree murder trial of her older brother, Patti is one of the many people whose lives have been upended by the tragedy. In June 2014, when Alvin and Kathy Liknes and their grandson Nathan went missing, she was the common-law spouse of Alvin’s son, Allen. She and Allen had a good relationship with Jennifer and Rod O’Brien, five-year-old Nathan’s parents; Kathy and Alvin were members of her extended family.
On the day she saw the police photo of a distinct green truck, she quickly went into action. With the help of Allen and her son, Jordan, she sent police a photo of the truck owned by her dad, Archie, but used almost exclusively by the loner his dad calls Dougie during his testimony.
On Tuesday, prosecutors Shane Parker and Vicki Faulkner enlist the people closest to Douglas Garland — the only ones close to him, in fact — in their contention that Douglas Garland killed all three and likely burned their bodies. The trio — Archie, Doreen and Patti Garland — are rural folk to the core, answering every question put to them to the best of their abilities, often offering up even more detail and insight than expected.
The portrait painted by his parents of Douglas Garland is that of a man with no friends, no romantic relationships throughout his adult life and a person who didn’t confide his private thoughts to anyone.
“Well, he’s my son, I love him and I’ve always loved him,” says Doreen, an 83-year-old whose life pre-June 2014 revolved around church meetings, taking care of her husband and making meals for the three. “I think he’s an unhappy man.”
Archie, 86 and in frail health, talks about his son dropping out of medical school at the University of Alberta after one year; his wife adds that after that, Douglas suffered a breakdown. The day after the three went missing, Douglas missed his weekly appointment with a psychiatrist.
After both talk about seeing their son the evening of June 30, 2014, and then hearing him in the shower on the morning of July 1, 2014, Doreen confirms for defence lawyer Kim Ross that their bedroom has a view of the driveway and road.
So, she would have known if Douglas had left the night of June 30, when the three went missing, and if he had come back. By way of explanation, Doreen offers a story of waking up one morning to discover a Good Samaritan had cleared her driveway after a heavy snowfall. “We never heard a thing,” she says, smiling at the memory of her snow angel.
It is, no doubt, a terrible day for the Garland family, who hold their own as they testify against a family member.
Whether it was a good one for the prosecution, who tried to establish both motive and opportunity in the minds of the jurors, remains to be seen.