Judge and jury at the Ryan Lane murder trial viewed pictures of a burned human vertebra on March 30.
Cst. Harvey Bankonin with the canine unit for the Calgary Police Services (CPS) testified in court that he, his Police Service Dog Gary and other constables had been searching a remote rural area near Beiseker for months before they had a breakthrough with the case on June 21, 2012. That break was the discovery of a burn barrel in a gravel pit.
"Gary had been working towards the burn barrel and started pawing at the barrel which is an alert sign," Bankonin told the court on March 30.
Bankonin said this was the first time the dog had "alerted" in the four months during the search for Lane.
Lane, originally from Cochrane, went missing in early February 2012 while he was going through an alleged custody dispute with his child’s mother, Sheena Cuthill.
Cuthill along with her husband Tim Rempel and his brother Wilhelm Rempel are the three co-accused in the murder trial. Each is charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping in connection with Lane’s death.
The Rempel brothers had both denied ever knowing or meeting Lane in their original statements given to CPS.
Lane went missing after receiving an anonymous phone call from a payphone with a person promising Lane that they had a way for Lane to gain more access to his daughter.
Lane and Cuthill had spilt shortly after the birth of their daughter. Then, in November 2011, Lane was served with a notice that Cuthill was seeking sole custody. Between November 2011 and February 2012, the issue was being handled in family law court.
As previously testified by Lane’s father, Bruce Lane, the former Cochranite drove to meet with the man. Bruce observed Lane getting into a red pickup truck in a northwest Calgary parking lot on Feb. 6, 2012 – the last time anyone had reported seeing Lane.
Last week during trial, the judge and jury heard conflicting stories in the original statements given to CPS from the Rempel brothers. Tim told CPS that he and Wilhelm went out for coffee in Airdrie on the night of Lane’s disappearance – while Wilhelm told CPS that he was out for coffee with his estranged wife in the evening.
Cst. Bankonin told the courtroom that once the burn barrel was located on June 21, 2012, he observed a shovel and hammer inside the burn barrel.
“I thought it was odd,” Bankonin said.
The officer said upon further investigation of the burn pile he discovered what he thought was a vertebra. Bankonin then took a photo of what he believed to be bone and sent the photo to an expert friend in another province.
Cst. Jodi Arns with the Forensic Evidence Crime Scene Unit testified later that morning to confirm the burned white object found by Bankonin was a human bone fragment.
Cuthill and the Rempel brothers were arrested and charged in November 2012.
This is the third week in the six-week murder trial for Ryan Lane.
