Stabbing left trail of blood, court told
Woman found lying on staircase landing
A table and chair were turned over in Maria Altagarcia Dorval’s blood-spattered kitchen when police arrived. Knives lay on the counter and a trail of blood led to the rear balcony door.
Montreal police Const. Éric Dechamplain told a Quebec Superior Court jury Thursday that when he went out onto the back balcony and looked down the circular metal stairs, he saw Dorval, dressed only in her underwear, lying on her back on the landing one storey down.
The 28-year-old mother of three was unconscious with no pulse. She had been stabbed several times. Dechamplain and his partner tried reviving her with cardio-pulmonary resuscitation until first responders and an ambulance arrived, but to no avail, the officer testified.
Dorval’s estranged husband, Edens Kenol, spent his 37th birthday in the prisoner’s box Thursday as two police officers testified on the second day of his trial for first-degree murder. Kenol wore a black sweater, and did not once look toward the screen on which photos of the crime scene were displayed.
“We had information that there were little children, so we went back into the apartment to make sure they weren’t hiding,” Dechamplain said of the Oct. 17, 2010, incident. “We looked in closets, under beds.”
A few hours later, when the three young children hadn’t been found, Dechamplain said he searched all the rooms again and looked in the washer, dryer and freezer.
“It was then that I saw the wallet on the bed, looked at the identification inside and found the children’s school identification,” he told the five-woman, seven-man jury.
Dechamplain and his partner arrived at Dorval’s apartment on l’Archevêque Ave. in Montreal North at 2:47 a.m. after a neighbour called 911 at 2:45 a.m., the officer testified.
The jury has already heard that Kenol had called a mutual friend of the couple on Oct. 16, and was upset that Dorval wanted to leave him.
That night, Dorval had gone to a party for her 28th birthday and got a drive home with someone at about 2:15 a.m. She spoke on the phone to the man as he drove to his home after dropping her off, then suddenly her phone went dead.
Montreal police crime scene specialist Carl Benson took photos of the apartment, including a shot of the broken cellphone laying on the kitchen floor. He also took photos of a knife found in the back seat of a black Honda CRV — the handle was broken and blade covered in blood.
The trial continues Friday.