NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. - A good friend of accused killer Robert Pickton, who visited him regularly in his trailer and slaughterhouse, changed her testimony Wednesday and said she saw blood in his trailer.
The change in testimony came after legal arguments without the jury present and prompted Justice James Williams to address jurors.
Ingrid Fehlauer was asked by defence lawyer Adrian Brooks on Wednesday morning if she had seen anything unusual and she told the jury that it was only dirt.
In the afternoon, under cross-examination by Crown prosecutor Mike Petrie she said the earlier story was not truthful.
Petrie reminded Fehlauer that she had been asked a second time by Brooks if she had seen anything unusual and she replied no.
"In fact on one occasion you saw lots of blood everywhere,'' said Petrie.
"Yes.''
He asked her why she had given the earlier testimony.
"My understanding is that it wasn't going to be mentioned here,'' she said.
She said two defence lawyers had told her before she took the stand that "this would not be brought up.''
Petrie asked her if her first statement about seeing only dirt was "not true.''
She agreed.
"You knew it was not true at the time (you testified),'' he said.
"Yes.''
Before Petrie continued questioning her on other issues, the judge spoke to the jury.
"She's told you that she answered a question in a certain way because she understood from counsel that something wasn't to be mentioned here,'' the judge instructed.
"You should understand in the circumstances that counsel was not conducting himself improperly in telling her that it shouldn't be mentioned. I don't want you to think there's anything improper. . .
"I think it's established by the questions and answers we've just heard that she answered the question this morning in a way that was not truthful.''
Fehlauer also admitted under cross-examination she had been incorrect in stating the dates when she lived almost directly across the road from the Pickton property in Port Coquitlam, and also had her address on the road wrong.
Fehlauer, 36, told Brooks she lived across the road between 1994 and 1998 but later told Petrie the dates were actually between 1996 and 1998.
"Why do you recall that now?'' said Petrie after she conceded the dates and address given to the jury were wrong.
"I don't know what to say,'' she replied. "I made a mistake.''
She testified she first met the accused when she was five or six years old and that she used to visit him three to four times a week when she lived across the road. She said she would sometimes stay until after midnight.
She had told Brooks she cleaned Pickton's trailer home about seven times over a six-month period around 1996 and 1997.
She said she would vacuum, wash floors and do laundry.
"Did you ever see anything unusual?'' asked Brooks.
"Dirt on the carpet,'' she replied.
She moved to Maple Ridge after 1998 and had "very little'' contact with him afterwards, she said.
She described herself as a good friend of Pickton's although they didn't have an intimate relationship.
The jury also heard that she is a former sister-in-law of Pickton's brother Dave Pickton, whose name has surfaced many times at the trial. Dave Pickton once lived in a separate house on the property.
Fehlauer also worked for the Picktons in the 1990s doing office work for some of their businesses, primarily Dave Pickton's topsoil business.
Petrie asked her if she was aware that prostitutes would sometimes come to the Pickton property.
She said she didn't know about that and had never noticed women's clothes or needles in the accused's trailer when she cleaned it.
Pickton, 57, is on trial on six counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Marnie Frey, Mona Wilson, Sereena Abotsway, Georgina Papin, Brenda Wolfe and Andrea Joesbury.
He is scheduled to face another 20 counts of first-degree murder at a later date.
Petrie asked Fehlauer repeatedly what she and Pickton talked about and she said their discussions focused on animals and his work.
Despite the numerous visits, she told jurors she wasn't aware that Pickton sold some of the butchered pigs as a commercial business.
She often watched him butcher animals, including pigs, goats, cows and sheep, and horses.
Her testimony that Pickton also butchered horses was the first time the jury had heard that.
She said she wasn't sure if she had seen him butcher more than one horse, however.
Fehlauer, who said she also occasionally accompanied the accused when he went to pig auctions in the Fraser Valley, testified she had borrowed money from Pickton on at least three occasions. The total amounts were $370, she said.
It was not uncommon to see people on the property in the evening, she said, working on some of the machinery the brothers used in their businesses. She estimated there could be people there working as late as 10:30 p.m.
