Family photos, bloody sheets found in dumpster where Hamilton woman was killed, murder trial hears
Christopher Mitton once gave his mother a grey photo album bearing the words Live, Laugh, Love" on a laminated cover.
It was a Christmas present.
She kept the album - filled with photos of Christopher, his wife and their daughters - in her seventh-floor apartment at 200 Jackson St. W.
But the album wasn't there on July 31, 2016, the day Marilyn Mitton, 66, was found face down in a bleach- and water-filled bathtub with stab wounds to her chest.
It was in the garbage.
A Hamilton police officer testified Thursday that the album - along with several other items presented as evidence to the jury - was located in a dumpster in the basement of 200 Jackson the morning after Mitton was found dead.
Const. Peter Wiesner said he found the album alongside an empty bleach bottle as a five-person team of officers sifted through the garbage bin on Aug. 1.
The large bin was filled to the brim with five-day-old garbage, Wiesner testified, which tenants of the 23-storey apartment building dispensed through chutes located on each floor.
While the album bore no immediate connection to Wayne Bell - the 69-year-old now on trial for the first-degree murder of Mitton - Wiesner said he left the collection of photos for forensic investigators because it appeared to be something that shouldn't have been thrown away."
The team's search yielded nearly a dozen items set aside for investigators.
Besides the bleach bottle and photo album, Wiesner later found a pair of white sandals that were bloodstained at the sole and a white bed sheet with spotty blood markings in the bin, the jury heard.
Const. Jonie Fletcher testified she unearthed two king-size bed sheets - one red, the other white with floral patterns - from the dumpster. The floral bed sheet had large amounts of blood," Fletcher told the jury.
Fletcher also found a white plastic grocery bag. Inside was a handwritten letter in smudgy blue ink with the name Wayne Bell" on it, the jury heard, as well as several bank cheques belonging to Mitton.
The jury heard the cheques were in various states of completion. Some were partially filled out to Bell.
On cross-examination, Fletcher agreed that she could not discern when the items were thrown out or whether the items were thrown out in succession. She said the only items she located together were the red and white floral bed sheets.
The third day of the murder and arson trial - Bell is also accused of setting Mitton's apartment ablaze to cover up evidence - included testimony from Det. Kenneth Kaija, who executed a forensic search of Bell when he was arrested late July 31.
Kaija testified that Bell's khaki shorts, soot-covered on the rear, contained three pieces of identification pertaining to Mitton: her birth certificate, her health card and her library card.
The pockets of the shorts also contained three lighters, a pack of cigarettes, Bell's BMO bank card and a BMO receipt dated July 27.
The receipt showed Bell only had $120.36 in his bank account.
The trial resumes Friday.
Sebastian Bron is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sbron@thespec.com