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Crown says Edmonton filmmaker accused of grisly murder planned 'kill room'
Dean Bennett
Edmonton— The Canadian Press
Published
For a few days in the fall of 2008, say prosecutors, Mark Twitchell was living his dream: a would-be serial killer on the go, tooling around in his Pontiac Grand Am, a bloody hunting knife in the front seat and a dog-eared copy of “Dexter” in the back.
He'd planned for weeks, bought knives and a meat cleaver to go with a specially built metal table and chair for a makeshift “kill room” in a rented garage.
More related to this story
- Constable presents bloody evidence in Twitchell murder trial
- Fiction met ‘gruesome’ reality for murder suspect, Alberta court hears
- Edmonton police seeking red Grand Am
Beside him in the front seat — on a black laptop computer covered with Spiderman stickers — was a document recounting his exploits in grisly, intimate detail.
Three days after he allegedly killed Johnny Altinger, he got a speeding ticket — 115 km/h in a 100 km/h zone.
He tossed it in the glove box.
His car was overflowing with books, papers, bags, receipts and trash. He scribbled down things to do on a Post-It note.
The yellow stickie reminded him to clean the “kill room,” then go have rough sex with a woman who had a different name than his wife.
Mr. Twitchell, 31, is on trial for the murder of Mr. Altinger, 38, who was a pipeline inspector and motorcycle enthusiast originally from White Rock, B.C.
Prosecutors continued Friday to enter evidence they said will prove their case. They already told jurors that Mr. Twitchell was a wannabe serial killer who lured two men to a garage on Edmonton's south side by posing as a blind date on an Internet site.
When the men arrived, the Crown says, Mr. Twitchell tried to kill them. The first one fought back and got away, but didn't tell police.
The second one, Mr. Altinger, was ambushed, cracked on the head with a copper pipe, knifed to death with a military assault blade, dismembered with knives and saws used to cut up deer and dumped down the sewer.
Prosecutors say it was part of Mr. Twitchell's master plan as chronicled in a 30-page document found on his laptop that begins with the line: “This is the story of my progression into becoming a serial killer.”
The defence is expected to argue it's not a diary but a work of fiction.
The evidence presented to date paints a picture of a man who, in late September 2008, was trying to break into the mainstream film business.
Mr. Twitchell had just incorporated a production company and had finished shooting a low-budget tribute movie to “Star Wars” titled “Secrets of the Rebellion.” The film was still stacks of raw footage waiting to be edited.
On Sept. 26, 2008, Mr. Twitchell and some friends shot an eight-minute movie in the garage. It was called “House of Cards” and revolved around a cheating husband lured to a remote location on the promise of an Internet date. He would be attacked, tortured for his Internet pass codes and then murdered.
A week later, say prosecutors, Mr. Twitchell followed the same script — this time for real. He lured a man to the garage and, wearing a hockey mask to hide his face, he tried to subdue him but failed.
The next week, he targeted Mr. Altinger.
Police Const. Nancy Allen presented evidence taken from Mr. Twitchell's home to suggest he'd been thinking about what he was going to do for weeks.
There were receipts dating back to August for a meat cleaver, the military knife, handcuffs and a steel barrel the prosecution says was used to burn Mr. Altinger's remains.
There were sketches for a metal chair and table later found in the garage.
Const. Allen presented a wall calendar from Mr. Twitchell's home showing a notation that read: “Mark appointment, 7 p.m.” That was on Oct. 3 when the first victim allegedly was attacked and broke free. A second notation was made on Oct. 10, the day Mr. Altinger disappeared.
There were two more notes for Oct. 17 and Oct 24.
The evidence also depicts Mr. Twitchell as a young married man with an infant daughter, a home in the suburbs and a growing fascination for the fictional twisted crusader Dexter.
Dexter is the main character in a series of novels later adapted to television. He is a blood-spatter expert for the Miami-Dade police department by day, a vigilante serial killer by night, who uses his blood lust to punish the guilty.
Police found Dexter books in Mr. Twitchell's car and home and burned onto DVDs beside his computer.
Mr. Twitchell also appears to have loved comics, especially the “Star Wars” series. His Grand Am had the vanity licence plate read DRK JDI for “Dark Jedi.” His film company email address was named for Kit Fisto, a noble warrior in the space epic. Police arrest photos show a “Star Wars” tattoo on Twitchell's right bicep.
When he was arrested, he was putting the finishing touches on an “Iron Man” costume for Halloween.
Prosecutors have said that within days of the murder, the walls were closing in on Mr. Twitchell's world because Mr. Altinger had emailed the address of the garage to a buddy.
**********
Here's another take:
Fiction met ‘gruesome’ reality for murder suspect, Alberta court hears
JOSH WINGROVE
Edmonton— Globe and Mail Update
Published
Last updated
A brutal slaying and dismemberment of an Edmonton man three years ago directly mirrors both a diary and a film script written by a man accused in the slaying, a jury heard Monday.
But although the death of Johnny Brian Altinger mirrored would-be fiction, it was “gruesome and horrific” when carried out in reality – clubbed over the head with a copper pipe, cut up with a knife meant for carving large animals, burned in a barrel and then dumped, piece by piece, in an Edmonton storm drain – Crown Prosecutor Lawrence Van Dyke said in opening remarks Wednesday.
More related to this story
The remarks began an estimated six-week first-degree murder trial for Mark Twitchell, an amateur filmmaker for whom the Crown alleges reality and fiction were one and the same.
“[The accused's] plan was, quite simply and shockingly, to gain the experience of killing another human being,” Mr. Van Dyke said.
The case dates back to Oct. 10, 2008, when Mr. Altinger arrived at a garage rented by Mr. Twitchell under the assumption he was meeting a woman for a date set up online, the jury heard.
But when he walked into the garage, “Mark Twitchell's murderous trap was sprung,” Mr. Van Dyke said.
Mr. Twitchell clubbed Mr. Altinger over the head with a copper pipe, which he'd wrapped with hockey tape on one end for better grip, the Jury heard.
He then cut him up and burned him, before accessing Mr. Altinger's email to tell his friends that he'd gone on a vacation to the Caribbean. The jury heard of a similar attack, made a week earlier, in which a victim escaped.
The Crown also said that the events of both attacks are detailed in a ghost file dug out, by police, from Mr. Twitchell's computer, entitled SKconfessions.
“The document is essentially a diary,” Mr. Van Dyke said. It contained detailed accounts with names changed only slightly – the author said his wife was named Tess and daughter was Zoe (Mr. Twitchell's wife was named Jess, his daughter Chloe), Mr. Van Dyke said.
“I expect you'll easily be able to conclude that Mark Twitchell authored that document,” the lawyer said.
A script for a film, shot two weeks before the alleged date of death in the same garage, also mirrors the events very closely, the jury heard.
Mr. Van Dyke outlined a host of forensic evidence against the accused. The victim's blood was splattered on the garage's wall, a table, the copper pipe, the carving kit, a tooth, a knife, a duffel bag and another knife found in Mr. Twitchell's car, jeans found in his home and a glove found at his parents home.
Even when Mr. Twitchell was arrested nearly two weeks later, one shoe and his belt had traces of the victim's blood, the jury heard.
And 20 months after the arrest, police – acting on information from the accused – found skeletal remains in a sewer two blocks from Mr. Twitchell's parents' home. The bones had signs of “cutting, breaking, sawing and sectioning” and amount to the “intentional execution of Johnny Altinger,” Mr. Van Dyke said.
The Crown will call up to 72 witnesses during the trial.
At the beginning, Mr. Twitchell pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder but tried to enter a guilty plea on interfering with a dead body. The Crown didn't accept it, so the judge told the jury to proceed with the first-degree murder charge.
[Why are so many newspaper stories cut up into one-sentence bites? Do the editors think that people's attention spans so short they can't process more than one sentence at a time? If so, are they right?]
For a few days in the fall of 2008, say prosecutors, Mark Twitchell was living his dream: a would-be serial killer on the go, tooling around in his Pontiac Grand Am, a bloody hunting knife in the front seat and a dog-eared copy of “Dexter” in the back.
He'd planned for weeks, bought knives and a meat cleaver to go with a specially built metal table and chair for a makeshift “kill room” in a rented garage.
More related to this story
- Constable presents bloody evidence in Twitchell murder trial
- Fiction met ‘gruesome’ reality for murder suspect, Alberta court hears
- Edmonton police seeking red Grand Am
Beside him in the front seat — on a black laptop computer covered with Spiderman stickers — was a document recounting his exploits in grisly, intimate detail.
Three days after he allegedly killed Johnny Altinger, he got a speeding ticket — 115 km/h in a 100 km/h zone.
He tossed it in the glove box.
His car was overflowing with books, papers, bags, receipts and trash. He scribbled down things to do on a Post-It note.
The yellow stickie reminded him to clean the “kill room,” then go have rough sex with a woman who had a different name than his wife.
Mr. Twitchell, 31, is on trial for the murder of Mr. Altinger, 38, who was a pipeline inspector and motorcycle enthusiast originally from White Rock, B.C.
Prosecutors continued Friday to enter evidence they said will prove their case. They already told jurors that Mr. Twitchell was a wannabe serial killer who lured two men to a garage on Edmonton's south side by posing as a blind date on an Internet site.
When the men arrived, the Crown says, Mr. Twitchell tried to kill them. The first one fought back and got away, but didn't tell police.
The second one, Mr. Altinger, was ambushed, cracked on the head with a copper pipe, knifed to death with a military assault blade, dismembered with knives and saws used to cut up deer and dumped down the sewer.
Prosecutors say it was part of Mr. Twitchell's master plan as chronicled in a 30-page document found on his laptop that begins with the line: “This is the story of my progression into becoming a serial killer.”
The defence is expected to argue it's not a diary but a work of fiction.
The evidence presented to date paints a picture of a man who, in late September 2008, was trying to break into the mainstream film business.
Mr. Twitchell had just incorporated a production company and had finished shooting a low-budget tribute movie to “Star Wars” titled “Secrets of the Rebellion.” The film was still stacks of raw footage waiting to be edited.
On Sept. 26, 2008, Mr. Twitchell and some friends shot an eight-minute movie in the garage. It was called “House of Cards” and revolved around a cheating husband lured to a remote location on the promise of an Internet date. He would be attacked, tortured for his Internet pass codes and then murdered.
A week later, say prosecutors, Mr. Twitchell followed the same script — this time for real. He lured a man to the garage and, wearing a hockey mask to hide his face, he tried to subdue him but failed.
The next week, he targeted Mr. Altinger.
Police Const. Nancy Allen presented evidence taken from Mr. Twitchell's home to suggest he'd been thinking about what he was going to do for weeks.
There were receipts dating back to August for a meat cleaver, the military knife, handcuffs and a steel barrel the prosecution says was used to burn Mr. Altinger's remains.
There were sketches for a metal chair and table later found in the garage.
Const. Allen presented a wall calendar from Mr. Twitchell's home showing a notation that read: “Mark appointment, 7 p.m.” That was on Oct. 3 when the first victim allegedly was attacked and broke free. A second notation was made on Oct. 10, the day Mr. Altinger disappeared.
There were two more notes for Oct. 17 and Oct 24.
The evidence also depicts Mr. Twitchell as a young married man with an infant daughter, a home in the suburbs and a growing fascination for the fictional twisted crusader Dexter.
Dexter is the main character in a series of novels later adapted to television. He is a blood-spatter expert for the Miami-Dade police department by day, a vigilante serial killer by night, who uses his blood lust to punish the guilty.
Police found Dexter books in Mr. Twitchell's car and home and burned onto DVDs beside his computer.
Mr. Twitchell also appears to have loved comics, especially the “Star Wars” series. His Grand Am had the vanity licence plate read DRK JDI for “Dark Jedi.” His film company email address was named for Kit Fisto, a noble warrior in the space epic. Police arrest photos show a “Star Wars” tattoo on Twitchell's right bicep.
When he was arrested, he was putting the finishing touches on an “Iron Man” costume for Halloween.
Prosecutors have said that within days of the murder, the walls were closing in on Mr. Twitchell's world because Mr. Altinger had emailed the address of the garage to a buddy.
**********
Here's another take:
Fiction met ‘gruesome’ reality for murder suspect, Alberta court hears
JOSH WINGROVE
Edmonton— Globe and Mail Update
Published
Last updated
A brutal slaying and dismemberment of an Edmonton man three years ago directly mirrors both a diary and a film script written by a man accused in the slaying, a jury heard Monday.
“[The accused's] plan was, quite simply and shockingly, to gain the experience of killing another human being,” Mr. Van Dyke said.
The case dates back to Oct. 10, 2008, when Mr. Altinger arrived at a garage rented by Mr. Twitchell under the assumption he was meeting a woman for a date set up online, the jury heard.
But when he walked into the garage, “Mark Twitchell's murderous trap was sprung,” Mr. Van Dyke said.
Mr. Twitchell clubbed Mr. Altinger over the head with a copper pipe, which he'd wrapped with hockey tape on one end for better grip, the Jury heard.
He then cut him up and burned him, before accessing Mr. Altinger's email to tell his friends that he'd gone on a vacation to the Caribbean. The jury heard of a similar attack, made a week earlier, in which a victim escaped.
The Crown also said that the events of both attacks are detailed in a ghost file dug out, by police, from Mr. Twitchell's computer, entitled SKconfessions.
“The document is essentially a diary,” Mr. Van Dyke said. It contained detailed accounts with names changed only slightly – the author said his wife was named Tess and daughter was Zoe (Mr. Twitchell's wife was named Jess, his daughter Chloe), Mr. Van Dyke said.
“I expect you'll easily be able to conclude that Mark Twitchell authored that document,” the lawyer said.
A script for a film, shot two weeks before the alleged date of death in the same garage, also mirrors the events very closely, the jury heard.
Mr. Van Dyke outlined a host of forensic evidence against the accused. The victim's blood was splattered on the garage's wall, a table, the copper pipe, the carving kit, a tooth, a knife, a duffel bag and another knife found in Mr. Twitchell's car, jeans found in his home and a glove found at his parents home.
Even when Mr. Twitchell was arrested nearly two weeks later, one shoe and his belt had traces of the victim's blood, the jury heard.
And 20 months after the arrest, police – acting on information from the accused – found skeletal remains in a sewer two blocks from Mr. Twitchell's parents' home. The bones had signs of “cutting, breaking, sawing and sectioning” and amount to the “intentional execution of Johnny Altinger,” Mr. Van Dyke said.
The Crown will call up to 72 witnesses during the trial.
At the beginning, Mr. Twitchell pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder but tried to enter a guilty plea on interfering with a dead body. The Crown didn't accept it, so the judge told the jury to proceed with the first-degree murder charge.
[Why are so many newspaper stories cut up into one-sentence bites? Do the editors think that people's attention spans so short they can't process more than one sentence at a time? If so, are they right?]
But although the death of Johnny Brian Altinger mirrored would-be fiction, it was “gruesome and horrific” when carried out in reality – clubbed over the head with a copper pipe, cut up with a knife meant for carving large animals, burned in a barrel and then dumped, piece by piece, in an Edmonton storm drain – Crown Prosecutor Lawrence Van Dyke said in opening remarks Wednesday.
More related to this story
The remarks began an estimated six-week first-degree murder trial for Mark Twitchell, an amateur filmmaker for whom the Crown alleges reality and fiction were one and the same.“[The accused's] plan was, quite simply and shockingly, to gain the experience of killing another human being,” Mr. Van Dyke said.
The case dates back to Oct. 10, 2008, when Mr. Altinger arrived at a garage rented by Mr. Twitchell under the assumption he was meeting a woman for a date set up online, the jury heard.
But when he walked into the garage, “Mark Twitchell's murderous trap was sprung,” Mr. Van Dyke said.
Mr. Twitchell clubbed Mr. Altinger over the head with a copper pipe, which he'd wrapped with hockey tape on one end for better grip, the Jury heard.
He then cut him up and burned him, before accessing Mr. Altinger's email to tell his friends that he'd gone on a vacation to the Caribbean. The jury heard of a similar attack, made a week earlier, in which a victim escaped.
The Crown also said that the events of both attacks are detailed in a ghost file dug out, by police, from Mr. Twitchell's computer, entitled SKconfessions.
“The document is essentially a diary,” Mr. Van Dyke said. It contained detailed accounts with names changed only slightly – the author said his wife was named Tess and daughter was Zoe (Mr. Twitchell's wife was named Jess, his daughter Chloe), Mr. Van Dyke said.
“I expect you'll easily be able to conclude that Mark Twitchell authored that document,” the lawyer said.
A script for a film, shot two weeks before the alleged date of death in the same garage, also mirrors the events very closely, the jury heard.
Mr. Van Dyke outlined a host of forensic evidence against the accused. The victim's blood was splattered on the garage's wall, a table, the copper pipe, the carving kit, a tooth, a knife, a duffel bag and another knife found in Mr. Twitchell's car, jeans found in his home and a glove found at his parents home.
Even when Mr. Twitchell was arrested nearly two weeks later, one shoe and his belt had traces of the victim's blood, the jury heard.
And 20 months after the arrest, police – acting on information from the accused – found skeletal remains in a sewer two blocks from Mr. Twitchell's parents' home. The bones had signs of “cutting, breaking, sawing and sectioning” and amount to the “intentional execution of Johnny Altinger,” Mr. Van Dyke said.
The Crown will call up to 72 witnesses during the trial.
At the beginning, Mr. Twitchell pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder but tried to enter a guilty plea on interfering with a dead body. The Crown didn't accept it, so the judge told the jury to proceed with the first-degree murder charge.
[Why are so many newspaper stories cut up into one-sentence bites? Do the editors think that people's attention spans so short they can't process more than one sentence at a time? If so, are they right?]
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