Empty shoebox helped match bloody footprints found at crime scene in Calgary triple murder
CALGARY — An empty shoebox at the home of a man charged in the deaths of an Alberta couple and their grandson helped investigators match bloody footprints discovered at the crime scene, a murder trial was told Friday.
Douglas Garland, 56, faces three counts of first-degree murder. He was charged after Alvin and Kathy Liknes and five-year-old Nathan O’Brien vanished from the couple’s Calgary home in June 2014. Their bodies have not been recovered.
Sgt. Lynn Gallen was in charge of a forensic team assigned to the Liknes home. But evidence collection initially had to wait, the police footwear expert told the jury.
“There was a sense of urgency that was put upon us in the briefing. We knew we were entering the residence without a warrant, but it was strictly to search for a person and then exit. They went searching for the sign of a child,” Gallen said.