Mom of slain kids says accused 'a great dad'

The man accused of killing his three children in Merritt, B.C., last year was described by their mother as a great dad who was seemingly incapable of harming them.

That's how Darcie Clarke characterized Allan Schoenborn, her common-law husband, in an interview with police in the days after the murders.

During cross-examination at Schoenborn's B.C. Supreme Court trial in Kamloops, Clarke said she told police her ex often played with the children, built things for them and was never violent or angry with them.

However, she also told police the first person she suspected in the killings was Schoenborn because of his mental instability.

Schoenborn is charged with three counts of first-degree murder. The Crown alleges he smothered his sons, aged eight and five, and fatally stabbed his 10-year-old daughter while the children were under his care in April 2008 at Clarke's mobile home in Merritt.

The woodsman who alerted authorities after he came across the accused in the woods, testified Wednesday that Schoenborn confessed to killing his children.

Kim Robinson told the hushed courtroom that Schoenborn looked haggard when he spotted him near a highway. 

"The man said, 'I'm Allan Schoenborn and I killed my kids. I killed them to save them from a life of humility,'" Robinson recounted.

Robinson said he asked the man what that meant and he said Schoenborn replied that he didn't want his kids ridiculed.

Clarke has testified the slayings happened the day after she told Schoenborn their marriage was over.

On an audiotape recording made after the killings and played to the court Tuesday, Schoenborn can be heard telling Clarke he killed the children because he "thought they were being molested."

The court did not hear why Schoenborn believed his children were being molested, or whom he thought was responsible.