“A lot of red flags” went up in RCMP Staff Sgt. Stacey Roger’s mind on the night of July 18, 2017 when the phone of a missing 13-year-old girl was tracked to Burnaby’s Central Park.
Rogers was in Vancouver Supreme Court Monday to testify at the trial of Ibrahim Ali, the man accused of first-degree murder in the girl’s death.
The victim’s name is covered by a publication ban.
As a shift supervisor on July 18, 2017, it was Rogers’ job to assign officers to try to find the girl, but Rogers headed out to the park herself as well, she told the jury Monday.
“The phone was pinging in the park in the middle of the night for a 13-year-old girl,” Rogers said. “I decided to go and potentially be another set of eyes that we needed to search.”
Two officers who had found the teen’s wallet and phone beside a darkened path in the south east section of the park directed Rogers to where they were just after 1 a.m. on July 19, 2017, and she was there when a police dog team entered the forest beside the path.
“He was only in there for a matter of seconds before he started screaming frantically for an ambulance to be called,” Rogers said.
She said she vividly remembered the dog handler exiting the woods.
“He circled around with his dog and was repetitively saying ‘No, no, no!’ because he was extremely distraught,” Rogers said.
At that point, she said she expected there was a body in the woods.
At the scene, she found the missing girl lying lifelessly in the bush.
“Based on what I saw, I knew that the file had taken a turn, meaning it was suspicious, so I then entered into a different mode where I knew that I was going to need to resource people to secure the park,” Rogers said.
Ryo Iwauchi-Paradis, one of the paramedics who confirmed the girl was dead, also testified Monday.
When asked why he and his partner had both assessed the body, Iwauchi-Paradis said because he knew the call would probably end up in court.
“Children don’t die like that in a park,” he said.
The trial continues Tuesday.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on Twitter @CorNaylor
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