Crown counsel delivered opening remarks to the jury Tuesday in B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops as the five-week second-degree murder trial of Vitali Stefanski got underway.
Stefanski is accused of killing his ex-wife, Tatjana Stefanski, in the North Okanagan in April 2024.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Prosecutor Rigel Tessman told the jury the 44-year-old mother of two was last seen alive with the accused at the top of her driveway in Lumby and was found dead the following day in a wooded area near Mabel Lake with a bloody knife nearby.
“Police found Tatjana’s body in the afternoon of April 14, halfway down an embankment near the 19-km mark of the dirt forest road near Mabel Lake,” Tessman told the jury. “She had multiple stab wounds, including one to her chest and six to her rib cage.”
“It’s pretty heavy and I’m kind of thinking five weeks of this is going to be a lot, but we’ve got to start somewhere,” said Jen de Bourcier, a friend of Tatjana’s family.
The Crown’s first witness to testify Tuesday was the former couple’s son, who was only nine years old at the time.
The boy told court that on the day his mother went missing, his father had dropped of a suitcase for him with personal belongings at the top of the driveway of the home he shared with his mother, sister, and his mother’s partner, Jason Gaudreault, at the time.
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The boy said that as he rolled the suitcase down the driveway to the house, his mom passed him walking up the driveway.
He said that was the last time he ever saw her.
De Bourcier said while necessary for justice to be served, she worries about the children testifying and having to relive the tragedy all over again.
“It’s something that should never have to be done, you know,” de Bourcier said. “Children should never have to bear witness to the details around their parent’s death, especially in such a violent manner.”
Tessman said he expects it will take two and a half weeks to present all of Crown’s evidence and testimony and that numerous witnesses will be called to testify, including forensic experts and RCMP officers, who located the accused’s vehicle on a dirt road near Mabel Lake the day Tatjana went missing.
The prosecutor told the jury that they will hear from RCMP that as officers were helping in getting the vehicle towed out the next day, a shoeless man emerged from the forest and stated, “That is my car, I am the reason you’re here.”
Tessman went on to say that when RCMP asked the man if he was Vitali Stefanski, he responded saying, “Yes. She is dead. Yes. I killed her.”
Defense lawyers will present their case after the Crown concludes.
The trial will continue Wednesday with testimony from Tatjana’s daughter.
“Hopefully justice will be served at the end,” de Bourcier said. “So that this family knows … what they’re working with moving forward as they step into their futures and the rest of their lives after this next five weeks is done.”
De Bourcier has started a GoFundMe for Gaudrault and the children to help with the financial burden during the five-week trial, which was moved from Vernon to Kamloops late last year after defence successfully argued was necessary to ensure the accused gets a fair trail.
Defence argued that if the trial was held in Vernon, the accused would be held in local RCMP cells during proceedings and would not have access to his laptop to review daily disclosure.
The judge granted the change of venue to allow the accused, who is in custody at the Kamloops Correctional Centre, access to his laptop.
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