Accused's sister found human remains in hockey bag

An Alberta man accused of killing two prostitutes lied to his family about a hockey bag that turned out to hold human remains, according to a new court document.

A police affidavit, released by a judge Monday, stated Thomas Svekla admitted to police he knew there was a body in the hockey bag he was transporting 700 kilometres from High Level to Fort Saskatchewan, both in Alberta,but said "someone" else had left it there.

The document also reveals Svekla told a friend and then his family in May 2006 that the bag was full of compost worms.

But Svekla's sister became suspicious and opened the heavy duffel bag, finding the remains of Theresa Innes wrapped in an air mattress, shower curtain and wire.

Investigators believe she was killed in the northern Alberta town of High Level.

Svekla is charged with second-degree murder in the deaths of Innes, 36, and Rachel Quinney, 19. Both women worked as sex-trade workers in the Edmonton area.

Quinney's mutilated body was found in a field east of Edmonton in 2004.

The affidavit says Svekla told police he found Quinney's body in Strathcona County, while he was smoking crack with another prostitute.

Police used the affidavit during their investigation last year to get permission for a wiretap. A judge will decide Tuesday if the information resulting from that wiretap can be admitted as evidence.

Svekla is the first person to be charged by Project Kare, an RCMP task force investigating the deaths and disappearances of dozens of women who worked in the sex trade.