A mother's heartbreaking testimony continued Thursday at the trial of a man accused of murdering a 13-year-old girl found dead in a Burnaby park six years ago.
The young teen's mother was back on the witness stand at the trial of Ibrahim Ali in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver Thursday afternoon.
Ali is on trial 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.
On Thursday afternoon, Isobel Keeley questioned the mother about the last day she saw her daughter alive.
The mother broke down as she recalled saying goodbye to the girl before leaving to visit a friend's farm in Langley on the afternoon of July 18, 2017.
"When I was leave, my daughter wrapped her both arms around me … I had not known that it would have been our final farewell," the mother said through a Mandarin interpreter.
The two had had lunch together that day after the girl returned home from summer school, according to the woman.
She said she hadn't noticed anything unusual about the girl's behaviour.
After the mother left the Langley farm that night at about 8 p.m., she said she called her daughter more than once but got no answer.
In the ensuing hours, she said she called and messaged her daughter "repeatedly" to no avail.
"You should answer your mom. Don’t scare me," she recalled saying in one message.
When she got back to the apartment, the woman said it was dark and she noticed her daughter’s black-and-white running shoes were missing.
She said the girl's brother had bought the shoes for her the last time he was in Canada and she liked them "very much" and would go walking and jogging in them.
Just a few hours after the mother noticed the shoes were missing, police found the girl's body in the forest in Central Park with black-and-white runners still on her feet.
The Crown's theory is that Ali attacked the girl inside Central Park, dragged her into the forest and strangled her while sexually assaulting her.
The mother's testimony is expected to continue Friday morning.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on Twitter @CorNaylor
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