Dad on trial for 1st-degree murder in deaths of 3 children (Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada)

Dad ALLAN SCHOENBORN is going to trial for the vicious murder of his three children. Dad has a history of problems with the law, including threats issued at the children's school.

http://www.am770chqr.com/News/National/Article.aspx?id=150245

at 13:52 on October 12, 2009, EDT.

The BC mother of three murdered children to testify at their father's trial

Terri Theodore, THE CANADIAN PRESS

KAMLOOPS, B.C. - A mother is expected to describe Tuesday the unimaginable horror of coming home to find her three children dead.

Darcie Clark will testify at the first-degree murder trial of Allan Schoenborn, the children's father.

He is accused of killing five-year-old Cordon Schoenborn, his eight-year-old brother Max and their 10-year-old sister Kaitlynne in April 2008 in the Merritt, B.C., trailer home.

The B.C. Supreme Court trial, by judge alone, has already heard many heart-wrenching details, including video evidence taken of the crime scene.

Not far from the front entrance of the home, the boys were found lying on the living room couch as if asleep, the TV was on and Max's arm was wrapped protectively over his little brother's chest.

On the wall nearby a message in large block letters read "Forever young" was written in soya sauce.

The court heard that both boys were either smothered or suffocated.

Down the blood-spattered hallway in Kaitlynne's room, Clarke's daughter was wrapped in a blanket hiding the stab wounds that killed the Grade 4 student.

In the master bedroom were more messages, this time written in blood on a pillow case reading "gone to Neverland" and "forevr young"

The first RCMP officer on the scene testified Clarke was hysterical, crying "my babies, my babies" over and over in the hours and days after she found the children dead.

The court also heard most of the blood found in the home was from Schoenborn and there were indications he may have attempted to kill himself before fleeing.

Down the street, neighbour Dan Robins can see the home where the children were killed from his dining room window.

He watched Schoenborn and the three children fly a kite in a nearby field the day before they died and watched police help Clarke out of the home in the minutes after she made the 911 call.

"I feel a little guilty myself," Robins said, explaining that he didn't like the look of Schoenborn when he first appeared in the neighbourhood.

"I said there's something wrong with this dude," Robins said, adding "He gave me the heebie jeebies."

"I should have phoned the police and said 'hey there's a really strange looking guy here."'

But the police already knew Schoenborn was in the neighbourhood. In fact he had trouble with the law in Merritt in the week leading up to the children's deaths.

He was arrested three times, including for allegedly uttering threats at the children's elementary school.

There was also a restraining order against Schoenborn after an incident involving Clarke in 2007.

There was no indication that the justice of the peace who released Schoenborn from custody was told of the court order.

Neighbours said Schoenborn had been at the trailer for about a week before the deaths.

A Canada-wide search was launched for him after the bodies were found.

Ten days later, Pat McCoy was walking his dog and spotted a dehydrated and haggard Schoenborn curled under a jacket in the woods just a few hours walk from the murder scene.

The trial is expected to last another three weeks.