Victims shot, beaten, medical examiner testifies

Autopsies showed that Susan Trudel and Barry Boenke were shot and beaten before they were found dead on her acreage in June 2009, an Edmonton court was told on Friday.

Medical examiner Dr. Graeme Dowling testified at the trial of the 17-year-old boy charged with second-degree murder in their deaths.

Boenke, who was found dead outside Trudels trailer, was shot three times.

Dowling believes the bullet that killed the 68-year-old went through his temple and was fired from at least two to three feet away.

Boenke also sustained a head wound caused by a blunt object that struck him on the back of his head.

Trudels body was found on the floor of her kitchen. She had been shot in the head, shoulder and hand. The gun was not fired at point blank range.

Dowling believes Trudel, 50, was killed by blunt cranial trauma caused by a blow across the base of her skull.

The murder weapons have never been recovered in this case.