The brother of a 13-year-old girl found dead in a Burnaby park in 2017 was visibly shaken when he was shown an autopsy photo of his sister at the murder trial of Ibrahim Ali Wednesday.
Ali is on trial in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver for first-degree murder in the girl’s death.
Her body was found in Central Park in the early morning hours of July 19, 2017, less than two hours after her family reported her missing.
Ali has pleaded not guilty.
Neither the victim nor her brother can be identified because of a publication ban.
Her brother was in the witness stand to continue his testimony Wednesday.
Crown prosecutor Isobel Keeley took him through a series of video clips of the girl coming and going from her apartment near Central Park and from a nearby Tim Hortons restaurant.
After each video, Keeley asked whether he recognized the person in the clip.
He said he recognized his sister and the locations the videos were taken.
Keeley apologized before showing him the final exhibit – a photo taken of his sister’s face during an autopsy in 2017.
“Do you recognize the person in the photograph?” Keeley asked.
“I do,” the brother said in a near whisper.
“And who is it?”
“It’s (the girl’s name),” he said, visibly shaken before quickly turning the photo face down.
The Crown's theory is that Ali attacked the 13-year-old girl in Central Park, dragged her into the forest and strangled her during the course of sexually assaulting her.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on Twitter @CorNaylor
Email [email protected]
