EDMONTON — Forensics experts say a description found on an accused murderer’s laptop about what it is like to cut up a human body is realistic.
Mark Twitchell has pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder of Johnny Altinger. He is accused of killing Altinger on Oct. 10, 2008, cutting up the body, burning the parts and dumping the remains down a manhole.
Dr. Bernard Bannach, an assistant chief medical examiner, told Twitchell’s trial Thursday how members of his team recovered parts of a human torso, teeth and other remains from a sewer in Edmonton last June — but not a head.
Bannach testified that his analysis of the remains determined that they were from one person and that there were saw marks on some of the bones.
The Crown then read a passage from Twitchell’s computer file, written in first person, about cutting up a body and asked Bannach to comment.
“Severing the head was also a simple matter and going through the vertebrae on the back of the neck didn’t take much at all,” read prosecutor Avril Inglis.
Bannach replied that based on his experience as a pathologist, the statement read by the Crown is correct.
“It is actually a fairly easy procedure to remove the head, assuming the knife is sharp,” Bannach replied.
Owen Beattie, a forensic anthropologist and former University of Alberta professor, was also read passages from the file about how easy it is to cut human flesh, ligaments and tendons, as well as on what internal human organs such as intestines look like.
Beattie called the descriptions credible.