(Updated 5:30 a.m., May 2)
Wood family faces doctoral student's accused killer for the first time
By Fred Sherwin
Orléans Online

It was a day Ardeth Wood's family was both looking forward to and dreading. On Monday, the family of the young murder victim got to see her accused killer for the first time and what they saw was unsettling.

Chris Myers was dressed in a black dress shirt covering a black T-shirt. His long hair was tousled on top of his head and he had a long beard. But it was his demeanour during the first day of his preliminary hearing that was unsettling for the family of the 2003 murder victim rather than his appearance.

As the first day of testimony unfolded in the Elgin Street courtroom, Myers often shrugged, smirked and shot glances at the gallery that included Wood's brother Colum, her mother Catherine and uncles Rev. William Ashley and John Ashley.

Ardeth's father Brendan chose to stay away from the courtroom rather than listen to the gruesome and often graphic testimony.

Christopher Norman Myers, 25, is charged with the first degree murder of Ardeth Wood who disappeared while riding her bike on Aug. 6, 2003. Her decomposed body was found several days later by a police cadaver dog near the northern end of Green's Creek just off the Rockcliffe Parkway bike path. The Orléans doctoral student was 27-years-old at the time of her death.

Besides the first degree murder charge, Myers also faces a string of sexual assault and robbery charges related to incidents in 2004 and 2005.

The normal publication ban has been placed on testimony presented at the hearing, which is expected to take five or six days.

While Mrs. Wood left the courtroom before pathologist Dr. Michael Pollanen started to present some of the more disturbing testimony, Colum Wood remained in the courtroom throughout the day. At one point early on in the hearing, he made a point of looking into the eyes of his sister's accused killer.

"The look in his eyes was pretty terrifying," Wood remarked after the hearing. "It just shakes you up."

The hearing will continue today, tomorrow and Friday and then again on June 12 and 23.

(This story was made possible thanks to the generous support of our local business partners.)

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