Believing she was part of a group of serial killers and sent to kill him, Mark Damien Lindsay said he had no choice but to kill her.
“I thought I had to kill her,” said Lindsay, 29, in his police statement.
He reached this conclusion from his belief that Dana Jane Turner, 31, was part of a group of serial killers called “Healers.”
Court heard the remainder of a five-plus hour interview of Lindsay conducted at the Red Deer RCMP detachment.
Wednesday was day two of Lindsay’s second-degree murder trial. Facts of the case have been admitted by the defence, leaving criminal responsibility as the main trial issue.
Lindsay told Cpl. James Morton during his police interview on March 16, 2012 that he believed Turner was a member of the Healers and was sent to kill him.
Turner and Lindsay met while they were both at Edmonton’s Alberta Hospital.
“I actually had to kill her to protect myself, my family and my brother,” Lindsay said.
Lindsay served 50 days at the Fort Saskatchewan Corrections Centre for stabbing Turner with a paring knife in June 2011.
Lindsay told Morton he was playing with the knife when Turner knocked him off balance. As Lindsay staggered back up, the knife he held hit Turner in the cheek.
After he got out of the Fort Saskatchewan Corrections Centre, he met up with Turner to talk. They got a hotel together. Lindsay said he heard voices of the Healers in the room below them and had to leave.
He left in a cab and went to his brother’s home. Turner wanted to meet up with Lindsay later that evening and the two met up and went to McDonalds.
Lindsay said he was scared and wanted to bring some kind of protection with him. He searched his brother’s room and had thought about grabbing a knife. He decided against taking the knife, but had a pencil in his pocket.
After McDonalds they drove for a bit and parked the car on a residential street.
That’s when Lindsay took out the pencil and stuck it into Turner’s eye socket. The pencil broke off and Lindsay said he had to strangle her.
“She was screaming and I wanted to stop and help her out, but she was going to kill me. I remember thinking about stopping and going to the hospital and fixing her. I wanted to fix her eye,” he said.
“I couldn’t stop. I apologize for that.”
He then put Turner’s body into a sleeping bag and drove around. He told Morton that he was afraid Turner would come back to life, saying she practiced witchcraft.
He drove around the area north of Edmonton and said he came to stop at a lake near St. Albert. Lindsay took Turner’s body out of the vehicle and ran over her head.
Lindsay drove to the Leduc Rona where he purchased a shovel, rake and work gloves.
He then drove south to an oilfield lease road west of Innisfail, where he left Turner’s body. The body wasn’t discovered until October 2011. Lindsay said he was too scared to bury the body and just left it behind.
DNA matching both Turner and Lindsay was recovered from the work gloves on the lease road.
Though he believed Turner was sent to kill him, he also acknowledged how close they were. He said he thought he could talk to her and talk her down from killing him, after she saw who he really was.
Mixed with the closeness of the two, Lindsay described his fear of her. Saying she would just show up to his apartment and even saying Turner would come and go at night to visit Lindsay and other inmates while Lindsay was at the Fort Saskatchewan Corrections Centre.
Lindsay is on trial for the August 2011 murder of Turner, who’s body was found in October 2011 west of Innisfail. Lindsay is the adopted son of former Edmonton Police Chief John Lindsay.
He is charged with second-degree murder, obstruction of justice and interfering with human remains.
The Crown is expected to close their case today and defence will open, calling a psychiatrist.
mcrawford@www.reddeeradvocate.com