Overview
- The court day began with a lengthy delay caused by a failure in the courtroom’s audio recording system, and the judge set a break for Thursday with only a half-day to follow on Friday.
- A recorded statement from the accused’s late mother, Ruby Penney, showed she went to the RCMP soon after Jennifer Hillier-Penney vanished and flagged a strange phone call Jennifer received months earlier from her cousin, Derrick Hillier.
- In that account, Ruby said Derrick claimed he was Jesus and would come with Jennifer’s dead relatives to take her to a party, which she told police made her fear he might do something.
- The jury heard that Jennifer’s daughter dismissed the idea Derrick harmed her mother because he was ill, and an RCMP officer testified Derrick’s parents said he had left the area before Jennifer was last seen.
- Dean Penney has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in Corner Brook, with prosecutors alleging a planned killing and the defence promoting alternate leads in an investigation that has not found a body.