by R E Swirsky
Chapter 26
Monday, December 5th 9:17 am
Crown Prosecutor Ron Baxter stood at the front of the quiet courtroom and prepared to give his opening statement. He looked over at Josh Anderson who was now situated in the prisoner's box to the right of the judge, dressed in the orange inmate coveralls. He stared at Josh for nearly two minutes without saying a word and let the silence of the crowd enhance the anticipation of what was about to begin. Josh did not know where to look as Ron stared him down. He shuffled his eyes across to the judge and jury and fidgeted with his hands. The crowd's eyes moved from Ron to Josh and back a number of times in exactly the manner Ron wanted. He moved over to the jury box and slowly paced across in front of it and stared at each juror one by one until he was sure he had the undivided attention of each and every one of them.
Everyone was fixated as Ron made his way back to the prosecution table, picked up a plastic bag from the desk and held it high in the air above his head so every single person in the courtroom wondered what it was that was concealed inside. He finally began to speak.
"There is a single guitar wire inside this sealed bag." He waved the bag back and forth a few more times, so no one would dare to look elsewhere.
"There is no question that this guitar wire was used as the murder weapon to strangle Donna Gardner on the night of September 18th, 2011; it was still wrapped around her neck when her coworker found her body." The hum of a murmur floated amongst the spectators and faded as quickly as it had risen. Ron heard the murmur and was pleased he received the reaction he wanted.
"The evidence in this case will show you that the accused, Josh Anderson, who lived next door to the victim, was not the person his family and friends thought he was. The evidence will also show you that Donna Anderson was not the person her husband, friends, and family thought she was." Ron paused momentarily before continuing.
“On the night of September 18th, Jack Anderson left his home on a business trip around 7:30 p.m. after having dinner with his wife. This business trip would take Jack far away from his home in just a number of hours. The evidence will show that Jack Anderson was still travelling through the Rocky Mountains on his way to Abbottsford, B.C. when his wife was murdered in their home. We will also show you that a phone call to Jack was made on the Gardner house phone by Donna at exactly 10:27 p.m. and that Jack's cell phone pinged the tower in Golden, B.C., indicating that Jack was in that vicinity. By the time Jack checked into his hotel in Abbotsford at two minutes after seven the next morning, his wife was already dead.” Another murmur crossed the crowd in waves.
“Donna Anderson was certainly not the devoted, dedicated, faithful wife her family and friends, and even co-workers, thought she was. The defense will bring witnesses attesting to Donna's faithfulness and character, but the evidence will show otherwise. Donna Anderson was anything but faithful to her husband and had, on numerous occasions, sex with other men. She even brought some of these men into the bed she and her husband shared every night.
“We will present evidence that will show that Josh Anderson, the suspect charged with this horrible crime..." Ron pointed at Josh. "...was one of those men. We will also present evidence that will show that on the night of September 18, Josh Anderson received a phone call from Donna Gardner a few hours after her husband Jack left town and that he went over to see Donna Gardner. We will present evidence of that phone call between Donna and Josh, and we will also show you the footprints left by Josh Anderson as he entered the Gardner property and house that night."
Ron raised the bag with the guitar wire in the air again and shook it as he carried on.
"This guitar wire was found around the victim's neck. Our suspect Josh plays the guitar. The evidence will show that Josh recently changed his guitar strings, and the old guitar strings, once removed from his instrument, were stored in the drawer of a bedside table in his bedroom. We will show you that one of the used guitar strings was missing from Josh's bedside table, and that the missing guitar string is the same guitar string I now hold in my hand."
Jack sat in the front row with his mother and Donna's mother and father next to him. Jack wanted to shout in elation at Ron's opening statement. He squeezed his mother's hand. He could not have asked for a better show, and the fact that Ron had opted to use the guitar wire as the centerpiece for his opening statement was more than he could have hoped for.
"We will show you evidence that Josh, in his second year at Bluffington University, was a frequent visitor to Donna at her office at Bluffington University where she worked as a counselor. Josh did not visit her only once or twice; he had been meeting with Donna on a regular basis for months prior to her murder. We will also present as evidence an earring that belonged to the victim, Donna Gardner. This earring was found in the bedroom of Josh Anderson. We will show you that the only way this earring could have ended up in Josh's bedroom was during a sexual encounter between Josh and Donna in Josh's bed."
Ron carried on with his opening statement, reviewing and putting forth all of the evidence they were about to present over the next number of days. Jack watched Ron, but his mind was elsewhere—already reliving some of the evidence Ron mentioned.
As Ron moved on to the DNA evidence, Jack began slowly reliving the process he went through to collect the perfect evidence Ron now spoke about.
It was pure coincidence that Jack's collection of evidence evolved to the level it did. Jack supplied many pubs and restaurants with supplies, and right around the time he and Donna were making their wedding plans two years ago, the H1N1 flu epidemic began. The transmission and serious health risks associated with the H1N1 virus created a mass panic all across North America. As a result, many businesses took action to ensure a safe and sanitary workplace.
Jack saw the perfect sales opportunity. He moved his supply of hand sanitizers and latex gloves to his promotional items, along with the food storage bags. He often gave the products away to get in a prospective client’s door.
Jack soon carried the samples everywhere; he often even had the samples at the ready in the pockets of his blazer or coat. Jack was a true salesman and never missed an opportunity. He began to see how his long-term plan for Donna was going to unfold on one of his traveling sales gigs in Edmonton.
Jack was staying at the Radisson on the south side of Edmonton. He was in the Lion's Head Pub at the back of the hotel after unsuccessfully encouraging the manager to accept some of his samples. He had been at the whiskey for a while and was about to head up to his room, but he ventured to the washroom to relieve himself first. The washroom was not very clean. A used paper towel was tossed on the floor, the sink counter was full of stains and drips from patrons washing up, and the urinals looked like they had not been cleaned for a while. Jack stood in front of one and it was so foul it disgusted him. Numerous black pubic hairs stuck to the lip of the urinal, and yellow stains and drips were dried and crusty.
Jack remained sickened by the public hairs as he relieved himself. He retreated to his room and tried to sleep, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the pubic hairs. Jack felt a sudden bolt of excitement pass through him as a thought popped into his head. He had to have another look at those pubic hairs. He jumped out of bed, dressed quickly, returned to the pub, and entered the washroom. There were a lot of pubic hairs. The hairs seem to have multiplied on their own. Jack reached in his pocket and pulled out one of the sample bags he grabbed before coming back down. He carefully picked out a dozen of the pubic hairs from the urinal and dropped them inside the bag. He resealed the bag, washed his hands, and went back up to his room.
And so his perverse attraction to collecting discarded DNA had begun. It was not a good sample, but he had come a long way since then. DNA was a key puzzle piece in his master plan for Donna.
Jack returned his thoughts to the present to see that Ron Baxter was now seated and Brian Barry was up front giving his best "my client is innocent" speech to the jury.
Jack looked around the courtroom. It was packed. Over to his right he could see Fred and Tracey. They watched Brian Barry with angst and worry that could only have been predicated by the powerful case Ron Baxter just promised to present to the jury.
Jack scanned across the crowd. All eyes were up front, and a few caught his own as he turned towards the back. One of those pair of eyes, seated far to the left in the back corner, was David Chow. David Chow locked eyes with Jack and he lifted his eyebrows as if to ask, "When?" Jack turned back towards the front and listened to Brian Barry's explanation of the lack of DNA evidence against Josh. David Chow would just have to trust him.
Jack again let his mind drift back to the collection he started years ago. He started to plan his sales trips around the collecting of DNA. He shifted his work schedule to start late in the day, and he worked through to closing. What was the perfect DNA? How was it to be handled and stored? He researched these questions at various libraries during his road trips, and soon began to understand what he needed to do.
He began a rigorous process of understanding the DNA he collected. He quickly realized that a bunch of hairs from a single urinal amounted to nothing. He began looking at other sources: cigarette butts, disposed tissues, napkins, and coffee cups. He began to watch people to see where the best sources ended up. He followed people at food courts, pubs, and parks. He watched them until they moved on and picked up their disposed trash. He began to label each specimen. At first, he added only a vague description, but it soon progressed to include dates, places, gender, hair color, age, race, and anything else he thought might matter. He kept all of his samples in a small suitcase in the back of his vehicle. He made two layers inside the suitcase. The top layer was product samples and the bottom held his little baggies with his precious DNA. If Donna or anyone happened upon his suitcase and opened it up, they would see only work product samples. Boring.
Many months passed as Jack refined his collection; replacing the old with the new and recording more info about his subjects. His collection grew slowly, but the collection was refined and sorted by sex, race, hair color, and location. He began to collect multiple samples of his subjects, starting with a discarded tissue and a used coffee cup. He would follow a patron at a bar out back for a smoke and bring one of the disposable tin foil ashtrays with him; he then offered it out at the perfect time to catch the ash and the butt. He would even share a smoke with his new friend and simply make a comment about how he hated it when people threw their butts on the ground. If he was lucky, he would also retrieve a glass or disposable cup with both fingerprints and DNA. Sometimes he would go back weeks or months later and collect more samples from the same subject.
Jack soon always carried a couple of pairs of latex gloves and a few sterile sample bags in his jacket pockets. He was always ready, but he had to be discreet. There were frustrating times when he was unable to capture that perfect sample as the crowd was much too big and close to him. He could not let anyone see him wearing a latex glove.
Jack learned the proper handling techniques to ensure the DNA was not contaminated and how to properly preserve the sample. He saved some in plastic and some in paper, whatever was required. Jack paid great attention to every detail.
The pubic hairs were still one of Jack's big targets, and he refined his collection process here as well. He picked the seediest bars, usually in the lower mainland of Vancouver or the east side of downtown Calgary. He would sit at the bar and watch who was coming in and going out. He watched the washroom and the activity of the patrons. As the crowd died down and he made a friend at the bar out of his potential subject, he would enter the washroom, put on one of his latex gloves, and scrub down the urinals so they were polished and sparkling. He would then follow his subject into the urinal and watch for any pubic hairs he left on the surface. This did not always work, but he was patient. He had two years to collect what he needed. He would pick a subject who smoked and collect the butts from the subject. He would especially watch for subjects with colds or coughs, and would grab a used tissue whenever he could. Multiple samples from a single subject was a prize collection, and Jack had a number of these already by the time Josh came into the picture.
Jack was proud of his collections, but he still needed more to put Josh front and centre and have it roll out the way he wanted. He knew that the more hair samples he had from one single subject, the better the DNA results would be. One hair was not enough. He already worked that one out in his mind, and it was going to take a serious effort to acquire. It would take him down to a new and dangerous low that he wasn't sure he could bring himself down to just yet.
Jack's thoughts returned again to the activity in the courtroom where Brian Barry was in the process of wrapping up his opening statement. Judge Rumpoldt ended the day's session, announcing that the Crown would begin producing evidence against Josh Anderson the following day.
The courtroom emptied quickly and the scrum outside was unavoidable. The media pushed microphones and camera lenses into the family member's faces and shouted questions at Jack and everyone with him. Jack pushed his way through with a repetitive "no comment" as he ushered his mother towards their vehicle.