Three decades after a young mother was strangled to death in her Edmonton apartment with her own bathrobe belt and shoelace, Brayan Boucher has been charged with first-degree murder.
DNA Evidence Key in Prosecution's Case
In her opening statement, prosecutor Harini Power told the jury that the ligature found around the victim's neck—consisting of her bathrobe belt and a shoelace—both bore DNA. When re-examined in an October 22, 2022, RCMP forensic laboratory test, Boucher's DNA profile was a match, she said.
"As the world changed, so too has science and technology. Those changes led to the arrest and ultimate prosecution decades after the death of (the victim)," Power said.
Background of the Case
Boucher, now 48, was charged with the killing in November 2023 and denied bail. He has pleaded not guilty. Police found the victim's body at her north Edmonton apartment on Dec. 25, 1996, after her father called police, alarmed that she failed to show for a Christmas gathering. In her 20s, the mother of two had last been seen in north Edmonton in the early hours of Dec. 23, 1996.
The prosecution said she had been sexually assaulted. Her body was discovered face-down on her bed, with her jeans pulled down around her ankles, and a number of sex-related articles on the bed around her body.
Court Proceedings
Short in stature and stocky, Brayan Boucher appeared Monday in Edmonton Court of King's Bench with Justice Marta E. Burns presiding. He wore a navy suit jacket and light blue shirt, with a neatly trimmed salt and pepper beard and moustache, and thinning close-cropped hair. Police testimony was set to begin Monday afternoon.
Nineteen days have been set aside for the first-degree murder trial, and the jurors will be sequestered when the jury begins its deliberations. A current publication ban on the victim's identity remains in effect.
