Victim could have died in laundry bag, doctor testifies
Double-murder trial hears how Baillie died of asphyxia, but mode is not clear
If Sara Baillie was still alive when her duct-tape bound body was stuffed into a laundry hamper, her bent position would have killed her, a pathologist suggested Monday.
Dr. Bamidele Adeagbo said he conducted an autopsy on Baillie’s body on July 13, 2016, two days after police found her corpse hidden in her little daughter’s closet.
Adeagbo said Baillie died of asphyxia, as did her daughter Taliyah Marsman — whose autopsy he conducted after the girl’s body was discovered July 14.
Adeagbo told Crown prosecutor Carla MacPhail the woman suffered both neck compressions and smothering.
The pathologist was giving evidence at the double-murder trial of Calgarian Edward Downey.
Downey, 48, faces two charges of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Baillie and Taliyah, whose body was found in a stand of bushes east of Calgary three days after her mother’s death.
Baillie’s body was found in the basement suite she shared with her daughter after she failed to show up for work and her daughter was missing.
Adeagbo said there were multiple abrasions and bruises on Baillie’s body and her brain was slightly swollen.
MacPhail asked about the possibility Baillie was still alive when she was folded into a clothes hamper, her face and neck wrapped in duct tape and her hands taped together.
“If Sara Baillie was still alive, but unconscious, at the time she was placed in the bag in this position, what can you say about her ... ability to survive?” MacPhail asked.
“It doesn’t look, with all the duct tape and everything, that she could extricate herself from that situation,” he said.
“Her breathing process is compromised in that position.”
Adeagbo also conducted an autopsy on Taliyah the day after her body was discovered.
“I classified it as homicide and the cause of that death as asphyxiation,” he said.
He also agreed with a passage of his autopsy report MacPhail read to him.
“The precise mode of this asphyxiation is not clear, however possibilities include, but are not limited to, smothering and strangulation.”
His testimony continues on Tuesday.