White guilty
Jury brings in second-degree murder verdict in pregnant wife’s death
Chris Purdy
edmontonjournal.com
Thursday, December 07, 2006
A jury has convicted Michael White of murdering his pregnant wife, Liana, and causing an indignity to her human remains by dumping her naked body in a ditch north of the city.
The jury delivered the guilty verdicts about 1:30 p.m. today, during its second day of deliberations. One juror cried; others clutched tissues.
White automatically receives a life sentence for the murder conviction. The jury recommended he serve 15 years before he is eligible for parole.
Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Mary Moreau will determine the parole period, as well as sentence him on the charge of causing an indignity, next week.
White closed his eyes then sat in the prisoner’s box with his head in his hands. When his mother, Carol Forbes, hugged him good-bye, he cried and repeated, “It’s OK. It’s OK.”
The 29-year-old mechanic and former soldier took the witness stand in his own defence during the month-long trial. He said he loved his wife and didn’t kill her.
The Crown argued White stabbed Liana in their bedroom, loaded her body in the back of her Ford Explorer and dumped it in the ditch near Range Road 251 and Township Road 542.
White then cleaned up the home, tossed his blooding clothes, cleaning materials and a broken bedroom lamp into garbage bags. He drove to a field along 167th Avenue east of 142nd Street and hid them in tall weeds.
He then abandoned Liana’s SUV in the parking lot of a recreation area near the couple’s Castle Downs home and staged an abduction by leaving the driver’s door open and Liana’s purse and shoes on the ground. Finally, he ran home.
The Crown played the jury a security video from a nearby pub showing a Ford Explorer like Liana’s driving past about 5 a.m. on July 12, 2005, the day she went missing. It was headed in the direction of the parking lot where her vehicle was later found.
About 11 minutes later, the video shows a man resembling White jogging by in the oppositve direction, towards the couple’s home on Warwick Crescent.
White told police he last saw Liana about 6:15 a.m. that day, when she left for her morning shift as a clerk in the neonatal unit of Royal Alexandra Hospital. She never arrived.
After Liana was reported missing, White made teary, public pleas through the media for help to find his wife.
It didn’t take long for police to suspect he was the killer. After watching the video, they placed him under surveillance.
On the night of July 14, police watched him drive to a field, pick up two garbage bags, take them home and place them outside for garbage pick-up the next day.
An officer, riding on the back of a garbage truck, seized the bags. Inside, investigators found latex gloves, cleaning supplies and White’s clothing — all stained with blood.
Police also used luminol to find invisible traces of blood in the couple’s bedroom, through the hallway, on the floor of the garage and in the back of Liana’s SUV.
On July 17, White’s volunteer search party found Liana’s naked body lying face-down in the ditch, covered with trees and branches. She was four months pregnant with the couple’s second child.
White explained during the trial that the blood in the house came from from a nosebleed Liana had a few weeks before she went missing. He said he put on the gloves to look at her nose and got blood on his clothes while trying to help her. Liana cleaned up the mess, he said, and likely threw everything in the garbage.
White further claimed he and Liana often used the field as a dump site for junk. He said he was scouting the area for his search team when he found the bags, assumed it was his trash and took them home.
The Crown called the story “incredible.”
