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Analyst tells Berry trial of struggles she had dealing with scene

Advisory: This story has disturbing details about a murder case.
Oak Bay Deaths 201904168500.jpg
Andrew Berry is on trial at B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver.

Advisory: This story has disturbing details about a murder case.

An RCMP bloodstain-pattern analyst has testified that she asked her supervisor to help her complete her analysis of the Beach Drive apartment where two young sisters were slain on Christmas Day 2017.

“I was saddened I had to attend this file,” Sgt. Kimberly Tremblay said on Friday. “I was upset that two children were dead, and I was upset that I had to recreate their last moments.”

Tremblay was testifying at the trial of Andrew Berry, who has pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder of his six-year-old daughter Chloe and his four-year-old daughter Aubrey.

On Dec. 27, 2017, Tremblay was informed that Saanich police were looking for a bloodstain-pattern analyst to examine the apartment where the children were killed and where Berry was found injured and naked in the bathtub. She asked police to send her photos of the apartment and decided she could help their investigation.

“This scene was one of the worst I have ever encountered, not just as a bloodstain analyst, but as a forensic identification member for 11 years,” Tremblay told defence lawyer Ben Lynskey.

Tremblay said when she was at the crime scene, she was able to look at the bloodstains from a purely scientific point of view.

“But when I sit down and start doing my analysis, I start looking at what exactly has happened, who was where, when and essentially recreating the scene. So it was hard to think about the children and the positions they were in and exactly what was occurring to them,” she said.

Tremblay phoned RCMP Staff Sgt. Diane Cockle from the scene and told her she was having difficulty because she was imagining the experience of the two young children. Cockle reminded her to use sympathy, not empathy, to compartmentalize her feelings, she said.

Tremblay, who has children the same age as the girls who were killed, said she realized being at the scene could affect her unconsciously.

“There were items that were inside the apartment that were covered in blood and I have those same items in my house. My kids read those same books. So I’d be lying if I said I didn’t make a connection,” said Tremblay. “Staff Sgt. Cockle reminded me to ignore it, look at the science and move on.”

Tremblay testified that she divided the crime scene into small, manageable portions, measuring and recording the information at the scene. In this way, when she did her analysis, she was able to control her exposure to the information and how long she had to look at the photographs.

About a month later, as she worked on the report, Tremblay found she was irritable, withdrawn and out of sorts in the office.

Tremblay testified that she was having trouble completing one area of the report before moving on to another area. She talked to Cockle about it during a meeting on Jan. 24, 2018.

“I was upset. I was crying with Staff Sgt. Cockle. We didn’t discuss the file. We moved into discussing my well-being and I was sent home to relax,” said Tremblay.

She came back to work shortly after and continued to do a professional job, said Tremblay.

The police officer said she took breaks, had a good support system, went for walks and runs and made sure her mental well-being was not affected.

The trial continues this week.

ldickson@timescolonist.com