Overview
- Security video and court testimony show Tatjana Stefanski left her Lumby property with her ex-husband on April 13 and her body was found down an embankment near Mabel Lake on April 14, 2024.
- Forensic pathologist Dr. Eric Bol told jurors Tatjana suffered seven stab wounds to the chest, 14 other sharp-force injuries, and hand and forearm wounds consistent with defensive injuries, and he said the cause of death was multiple sharp-force injuries.
- A bent, bloodied fishing knife found near the body tested positive for DNA from both Tatjana and Vitali Stefanski, a fact prosecutors have used to link the scene to the accused.
- On the stand, Vitali Stefanski denied inflicting the wounds and said Tatjana stabbed herself in his car and later slipped down the embankment, a version that conflicts with police testimony that he confessed at the scene and with a later police interview video.
- Cross-examination of the accused is continuing and the defence has not yet said whether it will call evidence, leaving the jury to decide how to reconcile forensic limits, mixed DNA on the knife, and sharply different witness accounts.