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If it hadn’t been for the timber, Grant Norton’s physique may need been misplaced within the Forest Metropolis.
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If it hadn’t been for the timber, Grant Norton’s physique may need been misplaced.
At Ashley Bourget’s first-degree homicide trial, a jury discovered Norton’s physique was found simply metres from the Thames River in a white plastic barrel on July 19, 2020, 13 days after the Crown says Norton was overwhelmed and stabbed to loss of life.
What stopped it from rolling into the present was one tree within the closely wooded space on the bend that connects Ada and Jacqueline streets southeast of downtown – a brief stroll from Bourget’s Adelaide Avenue house.
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There’s a berm there and the opposite aspect slopes all the way down to the river. The barrel was lodged up towards one of many timber that was about two metres down from the highest of the hill. There was no clear path to the water.
London police Det. Sgt. Micah Bourdeau, the lead investigating officer within the case, testified that if the barrel had cleared the timber, it might have “rolled proper down into the water” when dumped.
“There’s a present and I believe if that barrel hits the water, there’s no telling the place it might have ended up,” he stated to questions from assistant Crown lawyer Lisa Defoe.
The barrel might have been snagged in particles or caught in branches downstream. “We’ve had circumstances the place it’s miles and miles outdoors town limits earlier than they’re caught up,” he stated.
Up till that time, police didn’t have affirmation that Norton was useless. At that second of grisly discovery, the police had been now embarking on a murder investigation.
Bourget, 40, has pleaded not responsible to first-degree homicide within the loss of life of Norton, 59, a high-level drug seller who offered giant portions of crystal meth within the metropolis.
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The jury has already heard that Norton was residing in an Ingersoll resort room on the time of his loss of life and was cooking up a giant buy of medicine with “Massive Ashley,” recognized as Bourget, as his potential enterprise companion.
The final individual to see him alive has already testified that Norton had an estimated $30,000 in money within the console of his Audi within the hours earlier than his loss of life.
Norton’s physique was discovered by the London police public order unit at 5:20 p.m. Bourdeau stated the physique was in “a 55-gallon plastic drum, together with a cellphone.”
Bourdeau went to Ada and Jacqueline streets and watched forensic officers examine the scene and the barrel.
Bourdeau, as a part of his duties, regarded contained in the barrel and noticed the physique was wrapped in a black plastic rubbish bag. The torso and decrease limbs had been uncovered “and seemed to be tied up with an extended size of extension wire.
“It was like a sophisticated, complicated knotting of the limbs,” he stated, including that “it appeared like a large number {of electrical} cords.”
The physique together with a cellphone had been discovered on what had already been a busy day for investigators who acquired info relating to Norton. He had been reported lacking by his mom to the Waterloo Regional Police.
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There was info Bourget could be concerned, or at the least there was some involvement at her deal with, 20 Adelaide St. S., the place she lived in a small two-bedroom house.
Bourdeau testified he and and one other officer went to the deal with to speak to her earlier that day. When she answered her door, Bourdeau stated they may odor recent paint and will see the inside had a brand new coat.
He stated they instructed Bourget they had been investigating “the theft and attainable homicide of Grant Norton.” They requested Bourget if she knew him and she or he stated she hadn’t seen Norton in months and that she wasn’t conscious of something.
She instructed the officers she heard Norton had been robbed by Adam Wade – somebody the Crown has instructed the jury could be a witness on the trial – and that Norton “used to have a flowery automobile, presumably a Cadillac” and that she heard Wade was driving the automobile.
She stated Wade had come by her place a pair weeks earlier to go to “her avenue son,” somebody she had booted out of her house for stealing.
She instructed the officers she didn’t know the place Norton was, including: “If she ever needed to come up with Mr. Norton, she would undergo her ex-boyfriend, Joe Hodgkin.”
Bourget denied any involvement and wouldn’t have been bodily capable of commit a criminal offense like that.
The preliminary interview ended shortly when “Ms. Bourget grew to become upset with us. We left our contact info and left,” Bourdeau stated.
Bourget can be arrested the subsequent day, however launched with out costs.
However a search of her house turned up a number of gadgets that had been despatched for DNA testing, together with an aluminum baseball bat, a hammer and a hatchet wrapped in plastic wrap.
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