Polley said she analyzed swabs taken from multiple areas of VanHuizen’s body during a post-mortem examination, one from Trowbridge, and several from areas of the Corunna home into which the couple moved a few weeks before she died.
One person in the gallery covered their mouth and another dabbed their eyes with a tissue as a video from the night Cheryl VanHuizen died was played Wednesday in a Sarnia courtroom.
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The video, filmed on OPP Const. Matt Aris’ cellphone from his perspective, shows emergency crews working on VanHuizen as she lies on the floor in the master bedroom in the Corunna home she shared with her common-law husband, Shawn Trowbridge. VanHuizen, 51, was declared dead soon after.
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Earlier in the five-minute video from shortly after midnight on Dec. 31, 2020 – the Crown warned the gallery it may be disturbing to watch – Trowbridge is shown talking to Aris in the kitchen area. Shirtless, he appears to be distracted and utters several sentences, which Superior Court Justice Russell Raikes bailed the jury is inadmissible.
But his speech sounded slurred, Aris observed.
“He had an odor of alcohol,” he testified, adding his eyes were bloodshot.
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Aris arrested Trowbridge about an hour after the kitchen interaction and the 54-year-old boilermaker from the Corunna-Mooretown area eventually was charged with first-degree murder. Hey pleaded not guilty last week, marking the start of what’s expected to be a six-week trial.
It continued Wednesday afternoon with the video and Aris’s testimony, but earlier that day two expert Crown witnesses were also called to the stand. Diana Polley, a biologist, and Kris Legate, a chemist, both from Ontario’s Center of Forensic Sciences, testified about various swabs and samples sent to them by OPP investigators.
Polley said she analyzed swabs taken from multiple areas of VanHuizen’s body during a post-mortem examination, one from Trowbridge, and several from areas of the Corunna home into which the couple moved a few weeks before she died.
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Blood or blood-like substances were found in several areas around the home, swabbed and smelled for examination. Following DNA analysis, VanHuizen could not be excluded as a contributor to several of the swabs, Polley said, but Trowbridge was excluded from many of them, including the master bedroom door.
That door has been a major focus of the Crown’s case through the first week of the trial. Prosecutors brought it into the courtroom for the jury to see.
Legate, meanwhile, explained to the jury how fibers are examined after investigators pull them off surfaces with tape. He said he was sent a tapping from the master bedroom door that had what appeared to be navy cotton fibers.
“My assessment was that these fibers were transferred as a result of forcible contact,” he testified.
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But several clothing items sent to him for testing, including a dark blue shirt, were eliminated as a comparison for that fiber as well as a smeared material found on the surface of the paint on the door.
The trial continues Thursday. Following last week’s testimony from several of VanHuizen’s family members, police investigators and first responders, Lambton paramedic Tony Camara, OPP Const. James Bone and Aris testified Monday.
But Tuesday’s session was unexpectedly canceled as a juror tested positive for COVID-19. That juror was excused Wednesday, leaving just 13 after two others were excused on the trial’s first day.
That still leaves a one-person buffer as only 12 will be chosen to deliberate.
Trowbridge initially was charged with second-degree murder, but the charge was later upgraded to first-degree. He’s out of custody as he was released on $170,000 lease in December 2021.
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