Day three of Mark Twitchell murder trial sees 'blood soaked' pipe

As the murder trial of Mark Twitchell continued on Friday, the Crown presented the theory that the victim, John Altinger was bludgeoned over the head with a pipe. The court was shown a photo of two pipes seized from a garage rented by Mark Twitchell at the time Altinger disappeared.

Both pipes were 61 centimetres long. One pipe had one end wrapped in black fabric cloth tape. The police officer who took the photo told court she wanted to handle the pipe as little as possible, to maintain evidence integrity.

"There are multiple areas of blood staining throughout." Constable Nancy Allen told the jury. "I would describe it as blood soaked."

The jury saw photos of one end of the pipe where the constable informed them more blood was discovered, along with suspected tissue matter.

Blood tests were also performed on several pieces of clothing, including a pair of jeans and a hoodie seized from Twitchell's home.

The photos of the pipes are among hundreds of photos the jury has seen over the last two days. Those photos show piece after piece of evidence collected by the Edmonton Police Service. Evidence which then led to Mark Twitchell's arrest three weeks after the disappearance of the victim.

The jury was also shown photos of diagrams seized from Mark Twitchell's St. Albert home. They were for a table and chair. One of the papers specifically shows two chairs with the words "victim chair" and "killer chair" beside each one.

This photo shows a courier box along with an order form for a restaurant cleaver, and a box for hand cuffs.

The trial continues.

With files from Vinesh Pratap.