http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2006/11/28/2530722-sun.html
Accused wife killer Michael White displayed unusual behaviour several times after Liana White went missing, according to testimony by the victim's mother yesterday.
Maureen Kelly, who was the last Crown witness to testify before prosecutor Troy Couillard ended his case, told the jury she noticed a few odd things about how White was acting and regarding things she heard him say.
Kelly said she went over to Michael and Liana's Castledowns home on July 12, 2005, after Liana was reported missing and her SUV was found abandoned nearby.
"The house was pristine," said Kelly, adding while it was usually clean, it was typical to see cups on the counter, toys on the floor or movies by the TV. "It was just completely sterile. It was perfect. Not the way it usually was."
Later that day, White went to police headquarters and when he returned, he was curious about what police had been doing at the home and if they had brought in equipment or said anything about what they found, she said.
Kelly said White then said he needed to have a shower.
"I kind of wondered about that 'cause his hands were so clean," she said, adding she later went into the bathroom and found him in there shaving his head.
"He just looked at me," she said.
Kelly said White went back to police headquarters that evening and returned to the home about 11 p.m. She said he tidied up some papers and then went to the couch and watched TV for about 15 minutes before falling asleep.
When asked how she knew he was sleeping, Kelly replied that he was snoring and she stayed awake the whole night.
However, the next day when White's family called from Ontario, she overheard him say: "Oh, I didn't sleep at all."
After White was arrested and charged with his pregnant wife's slaying, he called Kelly several times, she said.
"He said, 'I never did what they said I did and it would get straightened out,' or something like that," said Kelly.
On subsequent days, White told her that "he was not guilty," that "he never did this crime," and that "he was innocent."
Kelly said when she confronted White about alleged evidence, including blood in the home and him being captured on a security video supposedly running away from where the SUV was abandoned, he said he had cut his toe with a whipper-snipper and it wasn't him on the video.
White also told her the evidence was circumstantial and "the police are lying," and "twist things around," she said.
Kelly also testified there had been no contact with a previously "verbally abusive" boyfriend of Liana's from Kelowna, B.C., since a restraining order was sought in 1993.
The defence case is slated to begin today and lawyers have told jurors White, 29, will testify on his own behalf.
The heavy-duty mechanic and former soldier is charged with second-degree murder and offering an indignity to a body in the death of his 29-year-old wife, who was four months' pregnant when her body was found July 17, 2005.
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http://www.canada.com/edmontonjourn...=f180eb50-5532-4193-a67a-d887e066f190&k=56994
blished: Tuesday, November 28, 2006
EDMONTON - After a long first day of talking with police about his missing wife, Michael White sat on his couch, turned on the TV and fell asleep within minutes.
It was July 12, 2005, the day Liana White was reported missing when she failed to show up for her morning shift as a hospital clerk and her Ford Explorer was found abandoned near a baseball diamond. Liana's mother, Maureen Kelly, testified at White's murder trial Monday that she was upset when police left the house about 11 p.m. on that first day of the search. They had found no clues as to Liana's whereabouts.
Kelly said she tried to talk with her son-in-law about what could have happened to Liana. White said he "didn't know," and a short time later she heard him snoring on the couch downstairs.
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Kelly told the jury she knew her son-in-law slept through the night "because I was up all night."
The next morning, she heard White lie to police on the phone, saying, "Oh, I didn't sleep at all last night."
Kelly said she last saw Liana, her only child, the day before she went missing. Liana had popped by her mother's home after work with the couple's three-year-old daughter, Ashley.
Liana was pale with dark circles under her eyes and talked about how the summer heat was bothering her. She was four months pregnant with their second child.
Kelly said her daughter had never mentioned problems with her marriage.
The next day, when White called with news of the disappearance, Kelly rushed to the couple's Castle Downs home. She said she was surprised by how clean the house was. Liana always kept a neat house, she said, but usually there was a cup left on the kitchen counter or a child's toy lying on the couch.
"It was completely sterile," said Kelly. "It's not usually like that. Everything was perfect."
As police searched the home, she said she heard a loud bang and ran to the master bedroom, where White had become upset and ripped some blinds off a window. She then noticed a bedside table lamp was missing.
Kelly said when White later sat at a kitchen table filling out a missing person's form, she heard him tell police that Liana was a "fighter."
"I thought, that's not the Liana I know."
Kelly tried to help police with information and told them a man named Steve had harassed Liana with about 45 phone calls a day when they lived in Kelowna, B.C., in 1993. Liana, 18, got a restraining order and the calls stopped.
Kelly said White insisted on taking a shower the day Liana disappeared, even though he had been at his mechanic's job for only an hour when he got a call from police to come home.
"I kind of wondered about that," said Kelly. "His hands were so clean."
She said White shaved his head while he was in the bathroom.
On July 13, White made a public plea through the media for help to find his wife.
He organized a volunteer search team to comb the city's outskirts.
Kelly said she later heard White excitedly talking on the phone to his father about the many people, including strangers, who were volunteering.
She quoted White saying, "Don't you worry. Somebody's got my girl and I'm going to find her!"
Kelly said White routinely called her from jail to proclaim his innocence and to talk with his daughter, for whom she now cares.
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Kelly detailed the calls in a notebook.
"I never did what they said I did," White told her on July 19.
"There's lots of evidence against you, Mike," she said during a call on Aug. 10.
She told White police had a security video showing him near the area where Liana's SUV was found. And police had also discovered blood throughout their house.
White said he wasn't the man in the video and it was his blood in the house -- not Liana's.
"You know that's not me (on the video)," he told Kelly.
"I cut my toe with the whipper-snipper. Remember?"
She said White told her there wasn't enough evidence for the case to go to trial.
