Skeletal remains of John Altinger found, trial hears

With his lawyer by his side, Mark Twitchell answered 'not guilty' when he was arraigned on the charge of first degree murder. Instead he pleaded guilty to a charge of improperly interfering with a dead body. An announcment the crown immediately rejected.

Moments later an explosive opening statement in which Crown Prosecutor Lawrence Van Dyke laid out the case.

"His plan was to gain the experience of killing another human being"

Van Dyke described the evidence as gruesome and horrific.

The Crown believes the accused used an internet dating site to lure John Altinger to the garage of a home in south Edmonton. The crown says the victim believed he was going to visit a woman named Jen.

The Crown contends Altinger was killed in the garage, bludgened with a copper pipe, stabbed with a hunting knife. Dismembered. And then ultimately the remains were disposed of down a sewer.

The Crown then detailed the extensive investigation that led to Mark Twitchell. And how search warrants turned up piece after piece of incriminating evidence. Including blood from the victim found on the walls and a table in the garage, and how a shoe and belt Twitchell was wearing at the time of his arrest contained the victims blood.

The jury also heard how police uncovered a text document in the memory of a computer seized from Twitchell.

The jury was told it was written in the first person; the Crown paraphrasing what was uncovered.

"This story is based on true events."

"This is the story of my progression into becoming a serial killer".

While the names don't relate to anyone in the case, the crown contends the 30 page piece is Mark Twitchell's diary.

At the time charges were laid police did not find a body. The jury was told that happened a year and a half later after investigators had another meeting with the accused and how after that meeting some skeletel remains of John Altinger were found in a sewer two blocks from the home of Mark Twitchells parents.

The trial continues.