Woman bought incinerator to burn husband's body: witness

A woman accused of killing her husband and disposing of his remains in an incinerator told a combustion expert months before the body was found that she wanted an incinerator in which to burn her husband.

Vic Small, owner of CJS Combustion Products, testified he met Anne Semenovich in the fall of 2007, after she had called him to inspect a used incinerator she wanted to buy. Small said that type of incinerator is rarely used on residential properties, so he inquired why she wanted it.

"She said she wanted to burn her husband there," Small said on Monday, the first day of Semenovich's trial.

Semenovich, 74, is facing charges of first-degree murder and indecent interference with human remains after her 77-year-old husband, Alex, was found dead in an incinerator on the couple's rural property outside Spruce Grove, west of Edmonton, on April 29, 2008.

She has pleaded not guilty.

Small testified the comment "kind of floored me," but conceded he didn't take it seriously and felt Semenovich wasn't "all there." After that, he refused to deal directly with Semenovich and instead spoke to her daughter, Laurie, while the machine was being repaired at his shop.

It was Small and his partner who discovered Alex Semenovich's remains.

Small said he had been called to the Semenovich property by Laurie Semenovich, who said the machine wasn't working. Small was scheduled to arrive on the afternoon of April 29, 2008, but arrived a few hours early.

After tinkering with some parts, Small's partner opened the doorway to the machine, where he made a gruesome discovery: "He said, `Oh my god, it looks like pigs' feet,' " Small testified.

Upon further investigation, they realized the feet didn't belong to an animal.

"Oh my god, those aren't pigs' feet; they're human feet," Small recalled saying at the time

Small choked up at this point in his testimony and said the incident still disturbs him. He and his partner packed up their tools and quickly left the property, where no on appeared to be home.

"If somebody seen us looking at this, we could be next," Small said.

RCMP arrived about 20 minutes later.

Small was the first witness to testify during the trial, which is expected to last three weeks.