Algonquin College student drowned, jury heard in murder case

Article content

Warning: This article contains content that some readers may find disturbing.

According to the allegations and evidence presented by prosecutors in the first-degree murder trial of Nikolas Ibey, Savanna Pikuyak suffered at least five blows to the head with a blunt object and numerous blows to the body as she was sexually assaulted and strangled to death.

Pikuyak was a 22-year-old nursing student who had just moved to Ottawa from Nunavut to study at Algonquin College when she was killed in the early morning hours of September 11, 2022.

Article content

He had rented his room from Ibey just four days earlier after responding to a Facebook ad looking for a roommate in his three-bedroom townhouse at 34C Woodvale Green in Nepean.

The Crown’s theory, presented to the jury at the opening of Ibey’s trial, was that Ibey, 35, was sexually frustrated and spent hours searching for a sex worker the night of the murder.

Crown attorneys Sonia Beauchamp and Michael Purcell allege Ibey beat and sexually assaulted Pikuyak, then strangled her to death between 3 and 9 a.m. on Sept. 11.

At around 9 a.m. that morning, Ibey sent a text to his father, James Ibey, admitting: “I’m in a lot of trouble. Last night I got drunk and drugged and killed my roommate.

He then threatened to commit suicide and urged his father to call the police. When officers arrived at the townhouse a short time later, they found Pikuyak’s naked, beaten body on a bloody bed.

Represented by defense attorneys Ewan Lyttle and Maggie McCann, Ibey confessed to the murder at the beginning of the trial and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, but that plea was rejected by the prosecution. He pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.

Article content

Article content

Pikuyak suffered at least five blows to the head, according to testimony from a forensic pathologist, and his body showed evidence of being struck in the chest and arms with a blunt, rectangular object. Prosecutors presented a meter-long piece of wood, spattered with blood, which they claimed was used in the murder.

Forensic pathologist Dr. James MacPherson said Pikuyak showed signs of defensive injuries to his body as well as to his arms, consistent with a person fending off an attack and protecting his head.

He agreed with the Crown’s opening argument that Pikuyak died from a narrowing of his airway due to neck compression. MacPherson testified that Pikuyak probably died within minutes after being strangled with a sweater.

During his testimony, Ibey’s defense attorney, Lyttle, was challenged by the pathologist, who pointed out some apparent “overlooks” in the autopsy examination of Pikuyak’s body.

MacPherson incorrectly stated that he had taken a swab from Pikuyak’s genitals, when in fact the person who performed the test was his supervisor.

Article content

Forensic investigators detected Pikuyak’s blood in several samples taken from the home and also found evidence of Ibey’s DNA on Pikuyak’s body, according to testimony from forensic biologist Heather Shacker.

Blood matching Pikuyak’s DNA profile was spattered along the length of the board found on the bedroom floor. His blood was also found on a sample taken from the carpet in the bedroom entryway and on the light switch in the front entryway.

Shacker said traces of blood were also detected in the sample taken from the bathroom tap on the upper floor.

When forensic investigators examined Pikuyak’s body and clothing, they found no traces of semen. However, Ibey’s DNA was found on her left and right breasts and the waistband of her underwear.

Shacker explained to the jury that the DNA found on their breasts matched Ibey’s DNA profile and was a trillion times more likely to have come from Ibey than to have come from an unknown, unrelated person.

Pikuyak’s fingernails also contained traces of male DNA. Shacker said Ibey “cannot be excluded” as a source.

Article content

Police took samples of Ibey and the clothes he was wearing at the time of his arrest and sent them to the Forensic Science Center in Toronto for analysis.

Forensic officers found traces of Pikuyak’s DNA on the inside of the front panel of the blue shorts Ibey wore, as well as in the crotch area of ​​his underwear.

Shacker said that the sample taken from Ibey’s genital organ showed the presence of his DNA and another DNA profile, but the sample taken was not suitable for comparison and was inconclusive.

Shacker participated in various hypothetical scenarios proposed by the Crown. He said Ibey may have washed out some of the victim’s DNA. He also admitted that Pikuyak’s blood may have been on his hands when he touched Ibey’s light switch, bathroom faucet and his own clothes.

Ibey’s defense attorney countered with several other hypothetical scenarios, arguing that DNA could have been transferred between Ibey and Pikuyak after they lived together in close quarters.

“It’s possible for them to come into contact with people living in a shared environment and share each other’s DNA,” Shacker said during Lyttle’s cross-examination.

Article content

Forensic scientists could not determine with certainty whether the male DNA found on the victim’s body came from bodily fluids or another source.

Lyttle suggested the DNA “could have been taken from shaking hands” or “from the bed.”

Lyttle said investigators cannot rule out the possibility that DNA was stored the day before Pikuyak was killed.

The jury trial continues with lengthy testimony from an Ottawa Police Service crime intelligence analyst who extracted and examined data from digital devices, including laptops and cellphones, seized from the scene.

Alyson Yaraskovitch guided the jury through a series of text messages from an excited Pikuyak as she secured her Woodvale Green apartment in early September 2022 and sent Ibey a deposit for the first and last month’s rent.

Pikuyak offered to meet him at the airport days later as he left his home in Sanirajak, Nunavut, and flew to Ottawa.

Prosecutors later produced a trove of data from Ibey’s mobile phone, including text exchanges and online searches for “escorts” that began around 5pm on September 10, detailing his extensive search for a sex worker on the eve of the murder.

Prosecutors said he was frustrated by his hours-long futile search for a sex worker.

Investigators also found text messages Ibey sent to his father the next morning, confessing to the murder.

Superior Court Judge Robert Maranger is presiding over the trial, which began on November 12 and is scheduled to last five weeks.

[email protected]

Article content