Mother badly beaten, rescued by couple

An 80-year-old woman was bloodied and confused when she was discovered in a Westside forest, a Kelowna court heard Tuesday.

Alexandria Davies testified she and a friend came upon the badly-beaten woman off Hidden Lake Road the night of April 29, 2019.

"Blood all over, one eye was completely shut. Hair missing out of her head. Just a bloodbath," Davies said.

Davies said her friend jumped out of their vehicle and went over to the woman. "She was telling him that her son had tried to kill her," Davies testified.

Davies said she and her friend then briefly left the woman, and drove a few hundred metres to get a cellphone signal to call 911.

"We wanted to make sure there was nobody out there with a gun or anything, trying to kill us," Davies said.

After phoning for help, Davies said, she and her friend returned to the woman: “We went back to rescue her.”

Davies said she and her friend put the woman in the front seat of their vehicle, then drove back down Hidden Lake Road and Bear Creek Main to Westside Road to meet an ambulance that had been dispatched to the scene.

On the ride down, Davies said, the woman told them her name was Eleanor Holmes. “She was extremely confused and in a lot of pain,” Davies said.

One of Holmes’ hands was badly swollen and there was blood all over her, Davies said.

Holmes' son, Kevin Lee Barrett, 60, has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and aggravated assault.

Also Tuesday, West Kelowna RCMP Vince Reddekopp testified officers executed a search warrant at a West Kelowna mobile home where Holmes, 80, lived with Barrett. Eighteen items were seized, court heard, including two hammers.

Crown counsel Patricia O'Neil says Barrett beat his mother and then left her for dead in the remote forested area. Barrett is being defended by Jordan Watt.

The trial, before B.C. Supreme Court Justice Steven Wilson, continues.