WESTASKIWIN — A medical examiner has told the trial of an Alberta woman charged with killing her two young boys that the cause of their death was drowning.
Dr. Bernard Bannach testified Thursday about the autopsies he performed on the bodies of two-year-old Connor and 10-month-old Jayden McConnell.
Allyson McConnell, 33, is on trial on two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths in February 2010.
McConnell, who is originally from Australia, has admitted to drowning the children, but has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The central issue at trial is her state of mind when she did it — the same day she killed her children, she tried to commit suicide by jumping off an Edmonton overpass.
Crown prosecutor Gordon Hatch says he is trying to establish that if MConnell was able to plan her suicide, she was also able to plan the deaths of her children.
The children’s father, Curtis McConnell, found the boys dead in the bathtub in the family home in Millet, south of Edmonton.
The McConnells were going through a bitter divorce.
The couple married Down Under in 2007 and bought a home in Millet, the following year. He worked at a hardware store and she did accounting for an oil company.
The marriage began crumbling in 2009 and Curtis McConnell moved out.
The trial will resume Monday, when McConnell’s defence lawyer is expected to call witnesses.