Mother describes nightmarish search after Charlotte Lafferty was killed

Charlotte Lafferty's mother recounted to a Yellowknife jury today her nightmarishsearch for her daughter after hearing a body had beenfoundin Fort Good Hope.

Louisa Lafferty was the first witness called in the first-degree murder trial of a man accused of killing her daughter.

Charlotte Lafferty, 23, was found beaten to death on March 22, 2014, near the community's seniors' complex.The man accused can't be identified because he was 17yearsold at the timeCharlotteLafferty was killed.

LouisaLaffertytold a Yellowknifecourtroom Wednesday that she last saw her daughteronMarch 21, 2014 after Louisa returned from a course in Yellowknife.They talked that evening as they cooked dinner. Louisa went out to afriend's, then came back and went to bed.

Louisa Laffertywoke up at about 7 a.m. the next morning.Her spousereturned from driving around town and said somebody had been found frozen near the seniors'complex.

Later, she realizedCharlotte was not in her room. Louisa Lafferty begancalling around the communitytrying to locate her daughter.

Passed by crime scene

She went to a relative's home near the seniors'complex to see if Charlotte was there. She could see the body in the area cordoned off by police.

"I seen the lady laying on the ground with a white sheet over her," Louisa Laffertytold the court.

The relative said 'that's not a young girl;that's the size of your daughter.'

"I tried to get it out of my head," Lafferty said. "But I couldn't."

Louisa Lafferty said sheheard that the accused had been one of the last people to see her daughter, so she called his home, where his mother answered.

"I said, 'can you wake him up and ask him where he left Charlotte?'She came back and said he wouldn't get up."

She said she later spoke to him by phone and that hetold her he had been drinking at a house where Charlotte was also drinking, but he got too drunk and went home.

She called the RCMP.

"I said 'I want to know if that's my daughter.'"

They asked her to come by the detachment where they showed her photos of clothing taken from the body.

Crying in the witness box,Louisa Lafferty said she immediately recognized the items and realized her daughter was dead.

'Horrific' injuries

An RCMP forensic expert went over a book of 89 photos of the crime scene. Four of the photos showed Lafferty's brutally beaten body. Several more showed the blood-stained, three-foot-long 2 by 2 piece of wood believed to havebeen used in the killing.

The expert testified that "there was quite a bit of blood on her and in the surrounding area."

Staff Sgt. Kent Pike, who was Fort Good HopeRCMP'sdetachment commander at the time, also testified Wednesday. He described the injuries to thevictim as "horrific."

Pike said he knew everyone in Fort Good Hope, including CharlotteLafferty, but could not identify the bodydue to the injuries to her face.

A total of 33 witnesses are expected to testify during the three-week trial.