Cusworth: The house party

Photo: Trevor Rockliffe

Jennifer Cusworth was last seen at a party at this Richter Street home Oct 15 & 16, 1993.

The trial of Neil Snelson entered it's eighth day at the Kelowna court house Friday morning. The court heard testimony from three witness as the Crown continued to recreate the events of October 15 and 16, 1993.

First up was Keith Smith, who was living at the home on Richter which hosted the party that Jennifer Cusworth was last seen alive at.

Smith admitted to being a casual acquaintance of Cusworth and saw her before and during the party. He also described a night of drinking, "pot smoking" and cocaine use that began Friday night and continued until early Saturday morning.

Smith and the group he was with, including Cusworth, eventually headed to Iggy's Nightclub after midnight. While there, they began inviting people to an "after bar party," including having announced over the club's P.A. system, something he admitted was not uncommon for them to do.

Smith also recalled placing Jennifer's purse into his roommate Eric Mikkelson's bedroom to keep it safe. The purse would eventually become an important piece of the investigation.

Near the end of the party, Smith says he and his friends saw that Cusworth was "quite drunk" and tried to stop her from leaving, something he said she would agree to do.

The next witness, Faith Klinksiek, also attended the party. She testified to having known Cusworth casually, having met her previously while living in Nelson.

She heard the after bar party being announced at Iggy's, and along with some friends, headed to the party.

Later on, Klinksiek stated that she was approached by friends of Cusworth who were leaving the party and asked her to make sure Jennifer gets home safely. She would then ask a friend to watch her, while she went into the kitchen.  Eventually Cusworth came into the kitchen and said "Can we go?" Klinksiek said to wait for 10 minutes and then saw Cusworth return to the kitchen and walk past her. That was the last time she saw her.

A search of the house and property turned up no sign of Cusworth, so about 45 minutes later, Klinksiek left the party.

After the testimony, the Crown discussed with the court details of a hair sample found on the top Cusworth was wearing. Described as a red hair, believed to be a pubic hair, it came back as a Mitochondrial DNA match to the blood sample taken from Snelson.

This type of sample is not as exact in identifying the person it comes from and can not exclude the possibility of it coming from someone else. The Crown stated that the probability of a Mitochondrial match coming from a non related person is one in 49.

A phone conversation between Neil Snelson and his father Perry was also submitted for evidence.

In the conversation, his father asked him about the drive home that night and whether Jennifer was with him.

Snelson stuck to his story that he drove home with three other people, including two girls, neither of which were Cusworth. He also remembered that at least five or six people saw him leaving the party.

He also told his father he could not remember which salvage company took away the truck he was driving that night.

Police were hoping to track down the truck to gather more evidence but Snelson said the engine seized and he got rid of it long before police were interested in it.

Next up was Dean Filipchuk. He was an RCMP Constable when he began working on the case in 1996 and had risen to Staff Sergeant when he finished working on the case in 2004.

In 2008, he was asked to return to the case as Team Commander for the unit that would pick up the investigation.

He was part of the surveillance that began on Snelson in 2009, and also first approached Snelson at his residence along with Cpl Bill Parmar.

Filipchuk says Snelson told them he knew they were following him.  When asked why he though they were tailing him, Snelson told Filipchuk "he had done some work for the Hell's Angels and that was why," and that his wife was suffering from anxiety attacks because of the surveillance.

When told they were investigating the murder of Jennifer Cusworth, Snelson denied knowing her, and repeated his story of what happened when he left the party.

Filipchuk then asked Snelson if he knew of "any reason why your DNA would be at the crime scene?"

Snelson replied "No, No I don't think so."

Snelson did admit to the officers that he had fooled around with one girl at the party and had unprotected sexual intercourse with another inside of his pick up truck.

He denied either were Jennifer Cusworth, but also stated he had been drinking and couldn't remember anything further about the encounters.