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It was another day of horrific evidence for the families of a five-year-old girl and her mother while the medical examiner detailed the injuries sustained at trial by the forensic doctor of the man accused of their murder.
Dr. Bamidele Adeagbo testified on the sixth day of the trial for first degree murder of Edward Downey. Downey is accused of killing Sara Baillie, 34, and her daughter Taliyah Marsman, 5 years old.
Adeagbo had finished telling the jurors Baillie's wounds and had just begun to testify to the results of Marsman's autopsy when the court rose for the day.
Several family members had to leave the courtroom while Adeagbo had begun to talk about the state in which Marsman had been found when his body had been discovered outside, three days after the alleged murder of his wife.
The child had insects on and around his face. His skin was darkened after being left out by the July sun.
On July 11, 2016, Baillie's body was found stuck in a laundry basket in the closet of her daughter's bedroom. Marsman was found in a grove just east of the city three days later.
According to the prosecution's thesis, Marsman was murdered because she had witnessed the murder of her mother or had at least recognized the murderer who was inside their home.
Broken bone in Baillie's neck
Adeagbo told prosecutor Carla MacPhail that Baillie had been strangled and died of asphyxiation: "death at the hands of someone else," he said.
The single mother had been so violently strangled that her killer had broken a bone around her neck. She was also suffocated.
If Baillie was alive when she was stuffed into the laundry basket, her position would have killed her by restricting her breathing, Adeagbo said.
When Baillie's body was discovered, her face, neck and wrists were wrapped in tape. Adeagbo said that there were five layers around his head covering his mouth.
The jurors have already heard two of Downey's fingerprints found on duct tape wrapping Baillie's head.
Bruises, bruises and scratches covered the victim's face, including the tip of his nose, said the medical examiner.
Edward Downey, 48, is charged with first degree murder in the deaths of five-year-old Taliyah and his mother, Sara Baillie. (CBC)
Three other injuries caught the doctor's attention.
Adeagbo stated that Baillie had internal bleeding and upper abdominal lesions, which occurred before other blunt injuries due to the strength of her back near her shoulder blades.
Baillie had also been hit so hard in the face that a hole had been left in her left cheek.
Downey's lawyers, Gavin Wolch and Meryl Friedland, have not yet had the opportunity to question Adeagbo.
Last week, Downey's girlfriend at the time of the murders testified that on July 10, 2016 – the day before Baillie's body was found – her relationship with Downey had deteriorated.
Results of autopsy of Marsman on Tuesday
The former girlfriend, who can only be identified by AB, said that he had hit her in the face and that she had refused to start working for him as a prostitute .
AB and Baillie were the best friends.
In her opening statement to the jury, prosecutor Carla MacPhail suggested that Downey may have blamed Baillie AB for trying to leave him and refusing to work for him as an escort.
Downey's cell phone will state that it was the day of his badbadination in Baillie's home and then in the rural area where Marsman's body was found later in the day, according to MacPhail.
Adeagbo will continue to testify about Taliyah's autopsy results on Tuesday.
Judge Beth Hughes of the Court of Queen's Bench presides over the trial.
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