Savanna Pikuyak had recently moved from Nunavut to Ottawa before she was killed. Nikolas Ibey is facing first-degree murder charges.
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Savanna Pikuyak suffered at least five blows to the head with a blunt object and multiple blows to her body as she was sexually assaulted and strangled to death, according to the allegations and evidence presented by prosecutors in Nikolas Ibey’s first-degree murder trial.
Pikuyak was a 22-year-old nursing student who had just moved to Ottawa from Nunavut to study at Algonquin College when she was killed in the early morning hours of Sept. 11, 2022.
She had rented her room from Ibey only four days earlier after answering a Facebook ad seeking a roommate at the three-bedroom townhouse at 34C Woodvale Green in Nepean.
Ibey, 35, had been sexually frustrated and spent hours looking for a sex worker on the night of the killing, according to the Crown’s theory that was outlined to the jury at the opening of Ibey’s trial.
Crown attorneys Sonia Beauchamp and Michael Purcell allege Ibey beat and sexually assaulted Pikuyak, then strangled her to death sometime between 3 a.m. and 9 a.m. on Sept. 11.
Ibey sent a text to his father, James Ibey, around 9 a.m. that morning where he confessed: “I’m in big, big trouble. I got into the booze and drugs last night and I killed my roommate.”
He then threatened to commit suicide and urged his father to call police. Officers arrived at the townhouse a short time later to discover Pikuyak’s naked, beaten body on a bloodied mattress.
Ibey, who is represented by defence lawyers Ewan Lyttle and Maggie McCann, admitted to the killing and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder at the outset of his trial, but that plea was rejected by the prosecution. He pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
Evening Update
Pikuyak suffered at least five blows to the head and her body showed evidence she had been struck in the chest and arms with a blunt, rectangular object, according to testimony from a forensic pathologist. Prosecutors presented a metre-long piece of wood spattered with blood that they allege was used in the killing.
Forensic pathologist Dr. James MacPherson said Pikuyak’s body also showed evidence of defensive injuries on her arms that were consistent with a person fending off an attack and protecting their head.
He agreed with the Crown’s opening assertion that Pikuyak died from constriction of the airway due to compression of her neck. Pikuyak likely died within a matter of minutes, MacPherson testified, as she was strangled with a sweater.
The pathologist was challenged during his testimony by Lyttle, Ibey’s defence lawyer, who pointed out several apparent “oversights” in the post-mortem examination of Pikuyak’s body.
MacPherson incorrectly stated that he had completed a swab of Pikuyak’s genitals when, in fact, it was his supervisor who had conducted the test.
Forensic investigators identified Pikuyak’s blood in several swabs taken from the home and also found evidence of Ibey’s DNA on Pikuyak’s body, according to testimony from forensic biologist Heather Shacker.
The length of wood found on the bedroom floor was spattered with blood that matched Pikuyak’s DNA profile. Her blood was also found in a swab taken from the carpeting at the entrance to her bedroom and on a light switch in the front entrance.
Traces of her blood were also detected in a swab taken from the upstairs bathroom faucet, Shacker said.
Forensic investigators did not find evidence of semen when they examined Pikuyak’s body and clothing. Ibey’s DNA was found, however, on her left and right breast and on the waistband of her underwear.
The DNA found on her breasts formed a match with Ibey’s DNA profile that was one trillion times more likely to have originated from Ibey than from an unknown, unrelated person, Shacker explained to the jury.
Pikuyak’s fingernails also contained trace amounts of male DNA. Ibey “cannot be excluded” as the source, Shacker said.
Police swabbed Ibey and the clothes he was wearing at the time of his arrest and sent the samples to the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto for analysis.
Forensic investigators found trace amounts of Pikuyak’s DNA on the inside front panel of the blue shorts Ibey was wearing, and also on the crotch area of his underwear.
A swab taken from Ibey’s genitals indicated the presence of his DNA and one other DNA profile, but the sample taken was not suitable for comparison and was inconclusive, Shacker said.
Shacker agreed with several hypothetical scenarios proposed by the Crown. She said it was possible Ibey could have washed away some of the victim’s DNA. She also agreed it was possible that Ibey had Pikuyak’s blood on his hands when he touched the light switch, the bathroom faucet and his own clothes.
Ibey’s defence lawyer countered with several other hypothetical scenarios as he suggested the DNA could have been transferred between Ibey and Pikuyak after living together in close quarters.
“With people living in a shared environment it is possible they could come into contact and share each other’s DNA,” Shacker said during Lyttle’s cross-examination.
Forensic scientists were not able to pinpoint whether the male DNA found on the victim’s body came from bodily fluids or from another source.
Lyttle suggested the DNA could have come “from shaking hands” or “could have been picked up from the mattress.”
Investigators could not rule out the possibility the DNA was deposited the day before Pikuyak was killed, Lyttle said.
The jury trial continues with lengthy testimony from an Ottawa Police Service crime intelligence analyst who extracted and examined data from the digital devices, including laptops and cell phones, seized from the crime scene.
Alyson Yaraskovitch guided the jury through a series of text messages from an excited Pikuyak in early September 2022 as she secured the Woodvale Green apartment and sent Ibey a deposit for the first and last month’s rent.
He offered to meet her at the airport days later as Pikuyak left her home in Sanirajak, Nunavut and flew to Ottawa.
Prosecutors then produced a volume of data seized from Ibey’s cell phone detailing his exhaustive search for a sex worker on the eve of the murder, including text exchanges and internet searches for “escorts” starting around 5 p.m. on Sept. 10.
He was frustrated in his hours-long, futile search for a sex worker, prosecutors said.
Investigators also discovered the text messages Ibey sent to his father the next morning confessing to the killing.
Superior Court Justice Robert Maranger is presiding over the trial, which commenced on Nov. 12 and is scheduled for five weeks.
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