NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. - A fingerprint belonging to the younger brother of Robert Pickton was found in a toolbox on top of a freezer holding human remains, Pickton's trial was told Wednesday.
On the side of the freezer there was a partial fragment of a palm print too damaged for police to match to anyone.
The two prints were among several presented to jurors at Pickton's murder trial as they were given a lesson in fingerprint matching techniques by RCMP Sgt. Tim Sleigh.
The officer first took the stand in February to detail the enormous search of Pickton's Port Coquitlam property that led to the six murder charges for which the former pig farmer is now on trial.
Sleigh returned Wednesday to give evidence on how found or latent fingerprints are matched to known samples.
Ridge by ridge, he showed jurors how a fingerprint found on a Colt revolver in Pickton's workshop was matched to the accused.
Pickton's prints were also found on a syringe wrapper, knife blade and cardboard box.
Sleigh testified that fingerprints were one of the oldest pieces of physical evidence used in investigations as they verify a person has had contact with an object but their findings had to be put in context.
"It's one thing to find a fingerprint that identifies somebody as being present and touching an object," Sleigh told the court.
"But it's another thing to take a look at the whole situation to make a determination on what was occurring at the time or what significance the object has to the crime investigation."
Under cross-examination, Sleigh revealed that a print taken from a piece of cardboard inside a toolbox on top of a freezer in a workshop was matched to the right index finger of Dave Pickton.
Sleigh testified earlier Wednesday that a partial palm print was also found on the side of the freezer but was ruled unsuitable for a match.
Inside the freezer, jurors have already heard, were the remains of Andrea Joesbury and Sereena Abotsway.
Pickton is charged with killing them as well as Marnie Frey, Brenda Wolfe, Mona Wilson and Georgina Papin.
Pickton's younger brother is one of several names the defence has raised in recent weeks as they introduce evidence about other people's presence at the pig farm.
Among them is also Dinah Taylor, a woman who was once arrested in connection with the alleged crimes but never charged.
The defence has suggested she and Pickton lived together.
Jurors heard Wednesday how her fingerprints were found on a wide range of items, from a bottle of aerosol spray to a headboard in Pickton's bedroom.
Taylor's prints were also on an address book found in Pickton's bedroom and a package of cigarettes.
Jurors were told Wednesday at the conclusion of Sleigh's evidence that the Crown has nearly wrapped up the section of the trial dealing with the identification of exhibits on the Pickton property.
Next week, jurors heard, the case will move forward to hear from people who collected the exhibits and ran them through lab tests.
The seven men and five women won't be back in court until Monday, as the final witnesses for this segment of the trial were not available this week.
Jurors have already heard some evidence about lab results and their relevance to the case.
Earlier Wednesday, court heard that an unidentified skull bearing the same cut marks as the Joesbury and Abotsway remains remains a mystery to this day, despite police efforts to match it to other cases.
RCMP Cpl. William Birnie told the court about his involvement with the investigation into a partial skull found near Mission, B.C., in 1995.
DNA testing ruled out the head as being the remains of a murdered man from Delta, and though there was a tentative match with a missing woman named Jodi Franz, later testing proved the skull wasn't hers.
A man was eventually convicted with her death.
The same year the skull was found, jurors heard, the bodies of three sex trade workers were found on logging roads in the Mission and Agassiz areas.
Victoria Younker, Tammy Pipe and Tracy Olajide all disappeared from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, the same seedy neighbourhood that had been home to the women Pickton has been charged with killing.
Though matching male DNA was found on two of their bodies, their killer was never caught.
And defence lawyer Patrick McGowan brandished a police document in court on Wednesday stating that the DNA was proved not to belong to his client.
