Voir dire evidence to be allowed in triple murder trial

Evidence and statements presented during a special hearing in a triple murder case will be allowed at trial when it begins next week.

Justice W. A. Tilleman ruled Monday in Lethbridge Court of Queen’s Bench that he will allow evidence heard during the voir dire hearing earlier this month to become part of the trial. That evidence includes statements the accused, Derek Saretzky, gave to police after he was arrested and charged with the murders of three people in the Crowsnest Pass in 2015.

A voir dire is a sort of mini trial that hears certain evidence and testimony to help a judge determine whether they should be admitted during the trial proper.

With that decision now recorded, the Crown and defence are expected to file evidence Wednesday for a second voir dire, on which the judge will have to decide before the trial begins.

Evidence presented during the voir dire hearings cannot be reported under a court-ordered publication ban.

Saretzky is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of 27-year-old Terry Blanchette and his two-year-old daughter Hailey Dunbar-Blanchette. He is also charged with offering an indignity to a body in the case of the toddler.

RCMP charged Saretzky shortly after Blanchette's body was found Sept. 14, 2015 at his home in Blairmore. His daughter's remains were found the next day in a rural field.

The accused is also charged with first-degree murder in the death of 69-year-old Hanna Meketech. Her body was discovered in her Coleman home Sept. 9, 2015.

The multi-week trial, for which a jury was chosen last week, is scheduled to begin June 7.

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