Court hears RCMP found blood, burning barrel after suspect’s arrest
CALGARY — A trial has heard that RCMP mounted what they thought was going to be a rescue mission at the home of a man charged in the disappearance of a couple and their five-year-old grandson.
Emergency response officers arrived at Douglas Garland’s farm days after Alvin and Kathy Liknes and Nathan O’Brien vanished from their Calgary home in June 2014.
Court heard Monday that police had hoped that the three were being held hostage at a farm near Airdrie, north of Calgary, and might still be alive.
“We were told we were going to perform a hostage rescue, that there was a possibility there was two or three injured people that required our immediate attention, to rescue them and get them medical aid,” Sgt. Troy Switzer, who was part of the emergency response team as a tactical paramedic, testified Monday.