Bleach was used on shovel

Shovel that Crown says was used to bury Lise Fredette was found in Watson’s house 3 days after she went missing

Bleach degrades and destroys blood and DNA. That’s what assistant Crown attorney Andrew Midwood told jurors on the first day of Andrew Watson’s first-degree murder and criminal harassment trial in the 2014 disappearance of Lise Fredette. On Friday, jurors heard that a shovel found in Watson’s basement was submerged in a bucket filled with liquid. There was also a “red froth” on the surface of the liquid and a scrub brush in the bucket, city police Det. Const. Ryan Donaldson testified. The shovel was found three days after Fredette disappeared on Nov. 12, 2014. Donaldson, a forensic identification officer, sent samples from the bucket and the shovel to the Centre of Forensic Sciences (CFS) in Toronto. Robert Gerard, a forensic scientist at CFS, testified in Peterborough Superior Court of Justice on Friday. The chemist tested the fluid taken from the bucket found in Watson’s basement. It turned out to be a mixture of two liquids: water and sodium hypochlorite. “It’s common household bleach – the kind you buy at the supermarket,” said Gerard, referring to sodium hypochlorite. The results of the testing done on the shovel and “red froth” from the bucket are expected to be heard in court next week from another forensic expert who works at CFS. When the trial began on March 20, the Crown told jurors they’d hear that blood found on the shovel belonged to both Watson, 78, and Fredette, 74. Jurors are also expected to hear about Watson’s and Fredette’s blood in her driveway on and their blood on and in Watson’s Subaru. Fredette hasn’t been seen since she dropped off a co-worker at home after the evening shift at Walmart on Chemong Road. She was the manager of the jewellery department. The Bensfort Road resident worked at the Chemong Road location for about 27 years, first at Woolco and then at Walmart (the stores were originally at Portage Place up the street). Fredette moved from Quebec to Peterborough in 1985. She has two children, Stéphane and Nathalie Leclerc and two grandchildren. Jurors have heard that she had a heavy French accent, was very involved her family and loved to dance. Watson moved to Peterborough about 20 years ago and lived in a house on Payne Street. He’s originally from Scotland, has never been married and has no kids. The two seniors met at a dance at Mapleridge Recreation Centre on a Saturday night. Fredette also volunteered at the dances, helping to prepare the luncheon for guests. The pair dated off and on for three years, ending the relationship for good in April 2014. Friends and family of Fredette testified that she told them Watson was stalking her and left her letters and loaves of bread. Watson was warned twice by city police to stay away from his ex-girlfriend – the last time was 10 days before she went missing. Her body has never been found. Ten days after Fredette vanished, Watson was arrested and charged. The Crown has to prove Fredette is dead and whether or not it was an accident, suicide or murder. If it was murder, the Crown needs to prove it was Watson and whether he intended to kill her in the course of criminally harassing her – which warrants a first-degree charge.