'They looked like they were placed there': 1st officer to reach Sorella's home describes finding dead girls

The first police officer to come across the lifeless bodies of the daughters of Adele Sorella said it looked as if the girls had been placed side by side in their playroom.

Valérie Daunais appeared as a Crown witness on the third day of testimony at Sorella's trial for first-degree murder in the deaths of her daughters Amanda, 9, and Sabrina, 8. They were found dead in their upscale Laval home on March 31, 2009.

Daunais told Superior Court Justice Sophie Bourque and the jury that she was on patrol that afternoon when a call came across her patrol car radio about a child who was unconscious and not breathing.

On her way to the home, she said she received another message that there was a second child at the scene.

Sensing a major event, Daunais told her partner, who had just two weeks' experience as a police officer at the time, to call for reinforcements.

When she arrived at the home, Daunais said a man at the entrance simply told her, "Hurry," while a woman who was present pointed to the playroom and said, "In there."

She said the pair seemed calm and poised, which she found strange.

"It wasn't what you would expect for two young girls who were unconscious," said Daunais.

Inside the playroom, Daunais said there was another man standing over the lifeless bodies of the two girls, on the telephone. She said he appeared to be getting instructions from someone, possibly emergency services, on how to perform CPR.

"Their positioning, when we arrived, seemed a bit bizarre," said Daunais, under questioning from prosecutor Nektarios Tzortzinas.  "They looked like they were placed there. They didn't look like they fell to the floor, like someone who fell ill or wasn't feeling well."

Daunais said the two were almost touching, the older girl with her arms at her sides, the smaller of the two with her right arm resting on her chest.

"Their hands were almost touching," she said.

Both of the bodies had reddish brown secretions coming from their mouths, according to Daunais. She said their bodies were cold, and their hands and noses had taken on a bluish hue.

Daunais told the man on the phone to leave, and she and her partner began CPR on the two victims.

The ambulances, paramedics and a doctor arrived minutes later.

Seventeen minutes after her arrival at the home, Daunais said the doctor on the scene ordered an end to the efforts to revive the girls and declared them dead.

Daunais said in her 14 years of service as a police officer to that date, she'd had to carry out CPR on several occasions, but that was the only time she had tried to revive a victim so young.

Girls' father wanted on worldwide warrant

Under questioning from Sorella's defence lawyer, Guy Poupart, she was asked if she'd heard of a police operation called Colisée. She said she was familiar with it, and she knew it involved organized crime.

Poupart asked if throughout that evening anyone ever mentioned the name Giuseppe De Vito.

"I was told he was the father of the children," said Daunais.

"Did anyone tell you that this person fled the family home during Opération Colisée?" asked Poupart.

"I can't say when he fled the family home," responded Daunais. "But I noted in my notebook that the father of the young girls was Giuseppe De Vito and that he was wanted across Canada and worldwide."

Daunais said that was the first time she had heard the name.

Forensic exam of hyperbaric chamber under scrutiny

Earlier in the day, a second police forensics expert called in to comb through the Sorella home took the witness box.

Laval police Const. Manon Sauvageau was one of the two investigators who spent days photographing and documenting potential pieces of evidence from the home after the girls were found dead.

Sauvageau told the jury that she assisted her colleague Éric Coïa in taking photos of the crime scene.

Sauvageau also investigated a key piece of evidence weeks later.

On May 19, she assisted a lab expert at Laval police headquarters in examining a hyperbaric chamber that had been seized from the Sorella home. The lab expert was a specialist in the search for fibres.

Sauvageau testified that the chamber was set on a wood palette, wrapped on the outside with large plastic wrap to hold the various parts together. It had been transported on a hand cart from the exhibits warehouse to the forensics examination area.

Under cross-examination from defence lawyer Pierre Poupart, Sauvageau said moving that chamber meant part of that transport took place outdoors.

She said she took more photos of the chamber, including pictures of hairs, and what appeared to be stains, on the outside of the chamber. She then removed the hairs and packaged them as potential exhibits.

Sauvageau said she removed the hairs so they would not fall inside the chamber once it was opened and contaminate the interior. She said she was not aware if those hairs were later sent for examination.

"Did you remove anything that could have provided more complete protection of the chamber before starting your work?" asked Poupart.

Sauvageau said she did not remove any other wrapping. She said the chamber had been stored in that state.

"Were you bothered by the fact it was not covered the whole time until May 19?" he asked.

Sauvageau replied she worked with what she had.

She told the jury that it wasn't necessarily the case that the exterior of the chamber should have been covered. That would have depended on what sort of expert examination was required.

Earlier, Poupart asked Sauvageau if she was aware that the hyperbaric chamber had been transported to the police exhibits warehouse by Laval city workers.

Sauvageau said she did not know who transported the item.

Superior Court Justice Sophie Bourque stepped in at that point to tell the jurors that Poupart's question alone did not constitute evidence.

"With Madame Sauvageau's response, you have no evidence as to who transported the chamber," said Bourque.