Friends testify at Amber Kirwan murder trial
Posted Jan 9, 2014 07:02:57 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The trial of Christopher Falconer, the man accused of fatally stabbing Amber Kirwan two years ago, heard from friends of Kirwan on day two.
Maggie Chickness and Renee Avery were with the 19-year-old woman on Oct. 9, 2011, the night she disappeared after leaving a pool hall in New Glasgow.
Chickness and Avery identified a series of photos of dirty and torn pieces of clothing as well as a pair of feathered earrings they said were worn by Kirwan when she was last seen.
They also identified Kirwan in surveillance video outside the bar she was at the night she disappeared.
Crown Attorney Bill Gorman tells Global News that video is an important piece of evidence.
“It’s an unusual situation where you have someone the last time they’re seen by family and friends it’s caught by surveillance video, that’s unusual,” he says.
Chickness says she saw Kirwan use a friend’s cellphone while they were at the pool hall to call her boyfriend.
Avery, who was at Kirwan’s apartment at the time, says she took the call and informed Kirwan’s boyfriend Mason Campbell that Kirwan required a drive home.
Avery says Campbell returned home later that night to say Kirwan had not shown up at a nearby convenience store, where they were supposed to meet.
Campbell, who also testified yesterday, explains there had been a party at the apartment he and Amber Kirwan shared near Pictou Landing and he had stayed behind when Kirwan went to the pool hall.
He says he didn’t want to pick her up at the bar she was at the night she disappeared because he had no insurance and feared police would be in front of the popular night spot.
Campbell says he drove to the convenience store but there was no sign of Kirwan, so he went homes.
Crown Attorney Patrick Young says it’s been difficult for Kirwan’s friends to talk about her death.
“They were nervous having to – we’re bringing up painful memories for them and we know that so understandably it was very difficult for them to talk about the last time they saw their best friend,” he says.
Campbell will be back on the stand today and Falconer’s Defence Attorney Mike Taylor says he’ll be listening for any discrepancies in the story.
“I’m waiting to see what he has to say when he finishes direct examination to see if there are any problems with what he has to say,” he explains.
Thirty-one-year-old Christopher Falconer has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
Prosecutors say Kirwan’s naked and bound body was found in a shallow grave off a rural road outside New Glasgow about a month after she vanished.
