Sara Schapansky was in the kitchen when the man with the gun walked through the door.
Called to the witness stand Tuesday at a double-murder trial in Peace River, Alta., Schapansky recounted what she saw and heard on a December morning almost six years ago, when two women were gunned down in their trailer.
Edward Chomiak, 55, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the December 2010 deaths of his ex-wife, Melody Perry, and her daughter, Jerica Bouchard.
Schapansky testified she having coffee in the trailer just before 8 a.m. on Dec. 15 when she saw headlights outside through the picture window.
She said Perry soon got up and went to the door.
Melody Perry (Supplied)
“I wasn’t able to see who was at the door,” Schapansky said, “but heard (Perry) saying, ‘What are you doing here? What are you doing here with a gun?’ Pretty much when I heard the word ‘gun,’ I bolted.”
The young woman ran through the snow in her socks and climbed into Bouchard’s car.
“I sat and I shook and I prayed and I waited, and I hoped,” she said.
She heard screams from inside the trailer and thought she heard gunshots.
After what she called “an eternity,” though she admitted she had no idea how much time passed, she said Chomiak came out of the trailer, climbed into his truck and drove off.
Jerica Bouchard
She went inside the trailer.
“By the time I got to the living room, I could see (Bouchard) in the kitchen. She looked dead.”
She took a cellphone from the kitchen table and called 911, then walked into the master bathroom and saw Perry in the bathroom.
“Quite obviously there was nothing I could do.”
An autopsy report later showed Perry had been shot up to 15 times. Her body was found in the the bathroom of the mobile home on a rural property west of the small town of Falher, about 430 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.
Bouchard’s body was found slumped against cabinets in the kitchen. The medical examiner determined she had been shot five times.
Chomiak pleaded not guilty Monday as his trial opened in Court of Queen’s Bench.
During the trial’s second day on Tuesday, the court also heard a recording of the frantic 911 emergency call Perry made in the moments before she was killed.
At one point, Perry told the operator her daughter was already dead and Chomiak was pounding on the bathroom door.
“I’m covered in blood,” Perry said.
The terrified woman cried out, “Help! Help!”
Moments later the recording picked up the sound of a single gunshot.
Police testimony recounts arrest
RCMP Const. Francis Boucher told court he and his partner were working that December morning as part of the plainclothes unit in High Prairie, about 70 kilometres southeast of Falher.
Told about the shooting and given a vehicle description and licence plate, Boucher testified he spotted Chomiak’s truck in the parking lot of the Super 8 food store in High Prairie.
It was then about 10:25 a.m.
Boucher said he was on phone calling for back-up when Chomiak came out of the store, got in his truck and drove off.
Boucher and his partner, in an unmarked SUV, sped after him. The roads were slippery with snow, he said, but the chase still reached speeds of up to 110 km/h.
Chomiak’s truck, he said, fishtailed all over the road before it finally veered into the ditch.
He said Chomiak climbed out and seemed to want help. Boucher and his partner were in an unmarked SUV and weren’t wearing uniforms.
The officer testified that Chomiak seemed to have no idea they were RCMP officers.
Boucher said he ran toward Chomiak and shouted, “RCMP. Get on the ground.”
His partner clapped handcuffs on Chomiak and advised him he was under arrest for murder.
At the time of the arrest, Chomiak had a pistol in his pocket and a loaded rifle in his truck.
The Crown has wrapped up its case. The trial continues Wednesday.