Police at first stumped by cause of girls' deaths, jury in Adele Sorella trial hears

Police investigators looking into the deaths of Adele Sorella's two young girls were at a loss to explain what could have killed the girls at first, a Laval police investigator testified Thursday.

On the fourth day of Sorella's trial for the first-degree murders of her daughters, Sgt. Det. Louis Galarneau told the court early indications led investigators to believe Amanda, 9, and Sabrina, 8, had been drugged.

The girls' lifeless bodies were found lying side by side in their playroom by their uncle on March 31, 2009.

Galarneau, who was in charge of the crime scene, led the search of the home for any evidence as to who or what might have killed the two young girls.

Testifying before Superior Court Justice Sophie Bourque and a jury of six men and six women, Galarneau said he did not see any traces of violence on the girls' bodies.

After the bodies were sent to the morgue to be autopsied, he said, the search of the home began.

Early on, Galarneau said, police were working on the theory that the girls had been poisoned.

"Everything was possible," he said. "We didn't underestimate anything."

After searching the home overnight and well into the next afternoon, Galarneau said, he got a call from a colleague saying early results from the first autopsy suggested a possible drugging.

The next day he got another call about the second autopsy. Galarneau said he learned that there were no chemical products involved in the death.

Under questioning from Sorella's lawyer, Pierre Poupart, Galarneau said he learned from his colleague that there was more of a chance that a medicine was involved.

"Possibly beige, with fine granules. It could have been a crushed medicine," he said.

Knew enough to get a search warrant

Poupart asked him what he knew when he and a fellow investigator wrote the affidavit to obtain the warrant to search the house.

"We just knew the two children were found by their uncle, who said they were possibly drugged," said Galarneau.

"[We knew] the mother was absent and had left a worrisome message on the voicemail of Luigi, the brother of the mother. And that the children were dead."

Galarneau said those were the essential details he needed to get the warrant to search the home.

The cause of death of the two girls has not yet been established before the court.

Earlier in the day, court heard from Laval police Const. Jonathan Couture. He was on the road in his patrol car with his partner when he received a call to go to the home. They were the third pair of police officers to arrive at the Sorella house.

Couture said once inside, he saw other officers dealing with Sorella's mother and two brothers who were in the house. He and his partner then went to the playroom, where two other officers were administering CPR to the bodies of the two girls.

Couture said he and his partner teamed up with the two officers performing CPR so they could take turns doing the chest compressions. He said one of the officers had difficulty moving the jaw to open one of the girl's airways because her body was already rigid.

Couture said the four officers worked on the girls' bodies for about 15 minutes until the doctor from Urgences-Santé arrived and declared them dead.

Galarneau is scheduled to be back in the witness box for further cross-examination from the defence when the trial resumes at the Laval courthouse Monday.