Crime-scene photos hint at Adele Sorella's daughters' last morning alive
Photographs taken at the home of Adele Sorella the day her children died tell the story of two young girls who wanted for nothing. They were set to go to school that day, but they never left the house.
Hundreds of photos were presented as evidence in a Laval courtroom on the second day of Sorella's trial for the first-degree murders of her daughters, Amanda, 9, and Sabrina, 8. Their lifeless bodies were found in Sorella's opulent Laval home on March 31, 2009.
Crown witness Eric Coïya, a retired Laval police constable, testified he was called to the home to photograph it, inside and out, room by room, in great detail.
Coïya's photos show, in room after room, the contrast between the lavish furnishings and a home in disorder.
One photo shows clothing piled on a rack in the bathtub of one of the bathrooms and also beside the tub. Another shows the desk in the the office, cluttered with papers, laptops stacked high atop it. Articles are placed in cupboards and cabinets haphazardly.
Photos taken in the basement show children's toys of all sorts and a games room with expensive arcade and video games.
In one of the girl's bedrooms, the bed is covered with dozens of stuffed toys. The other room is tidier, with posters on the wall and a model carousel on the dresser.
Hyperbaric chamber
Coïya also showed photos of two of the rooms which will play a great importance in the trial.
One was of the girls' playroom, where their lifeless bodies were found. The photos show the two girls, still in their school uniforms, with their blouses pulled open. Electrodes were still attached to the girls' chests after paramedics tried to revive them.
In another room upstairs, Coïya's photos show what he called a large chamber, covered in cloth and hooked up to two mechanical pumps. He said at the time, he did not know what it was.
In his opening arguments yesterday, Crown prosecutor Nektarios Tzortzinas told the six women and six men on the jury that a hyperbaric chamber was found in the house, and that part of the evidence they will hear will involve its use.
Coïya's photos also depicted the preparations by Amanda's and Sabrina's grandmother, who lived with Sorella and her granddaughters, to get them ready for school. The grandmother left the house at 9:00 a.m. the day they died.
Photos of two lunch boxes on the kitchen counter show each packed with fruit, a cookie, a plastic container and a napkin.
Coïya's photos showed the entranceway, strewn with children's winter clothing, and two backpacks, sitting side by side.
Coïya's photos also showed video cameras placed on and around the Sorella home, including on which appeared to be on a municipal lamppost. When asked by defence lawyer Pierre Poupart if he had ever seen so many security cameras at a home, or even one attached to a city lamppost, Coïya responded each time that no, he had not.
The trial before Superior Court Justice Sophie Bourque resumes for a third day on Wednesday.
