Svekla trial for prostitute killings starts Tuesday

Friends and family members of twoslain prostitutes will be in an Edmonton courtroom Tuesday for the trial of the man charged with killing them.

Thomas Svekla faces two counts of second-degree murder, in the deaths of Theresa Innes and Rachel Quinney. He's also been charged with offering an indignity to a body in both cases.

"You know what? I don't even call it the Svekla trial. I want to call it justice for Rachel and Theresa," said Danielle Boudreau, who knew Quinney andorganized a march in Edmonton Thursday to remember dozens of murdered and missing women.

The remains of Innes, 36, were foundin May 2006, stuffedin a hockey bag discovered in a home in Fort Saskatchewan, just northeast of Edmonton.

According to court documents released after Svekla's preliminary hearing, he told RCMP he did not kill the young woman, but was transporting her body from High Level, in northern Alberta,to Edmonton to give her a decent burial.

The body of Quinney, 19,was found in a wooded area east of Sherwood Park, an Edmonton suburb, in June 2004. Svekla has said he stumbled upon the gruesome discovery and then reported it to police.

"Well, it's a trying time for the family. It's emotional. Andjust put our prayer and our faith in the justice system and hopefully that light shines bright at the end of it all," Charlotte Lajimodiere said about the two-year wait to see her sister-in-law Rachel's accused killer go to trial.

The Svekla trial is expected to last up to four months. It is being heard by a judge alone.

The charges against Sveklaresulted from the work of a jointRCMP and Edmonton city police task force known as Project Kare, which has been investigating dozens of killings of prostitutes or those living what police call "high-risk lifestyles."

On Sunday, Project Kare announced it had added two more names to the list of killings it is trying to solve. Rene Gunning, 22,and Krystle Knott, 19,both from the Fort St. John, B.C., area, both went missing after hitchhiking to Edmonton in February 2005, RCMP said.