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In the coming months, Keeley told the jury they will hear from a forensic pathologist who will say the 13-year-old died of strangulation and that semen was found in her vagina and anus

An expert is expected to testify that the DNA extracted from the semen matched Ali’s, according to Keeley

The Crown theory, according to Keeley, is that Ali and the girl were strangers to each other, and that sometime after she left her home for the last time at about 6 p m on July 18, 2017, she encountered Ali on a trail in Central Park

He attacked her and dragged her into the forest, said the Crown.

“The Crown’s theory is that Mr. Ali strangled (the girl) to death in the course of sexually assaulting her,” Keeley said

The prosecution intends to call 50 witnesses

Three of the first witnesses to testify were Burnaby RCMP officers involved in the search for the girl after her family reported her missing on the night of July 18, 2017

The girl’s cell phone had been pinpointed or “pinged” to within a 30-metre radius inside Central Park, Const Richard Huggins told the jury

He and another officer, Const. Jason Castillo, were searching a darkened trail in the southeastern section of the park with flashlights when Huggins found a pink wallet beside the trail with the girl’s cell phone and student ID card inside

A dog team was called in to search the forest.

Staff Sgt. Stacey Rogers, a call supervisor on duty that night, arrived on the scene before the police dog and handler entered the woods

“He was only in there for a matter of seconds before he started screaming frantically for an ambulance to be called,” Rogers told the jury.

She said she “vividly” remembered the dog handler exiting the woods

“He circled around with his dog and was repetitively saying ‘No, no, no!’ because he was extremely distraught,” Rogers said.

In the bush, Rogers and Huggins said they found the missing girl lying life- less on her back.

Her shirt had been pulled up and her shorts and underwear pulled down, according to the officers.

Ryo Iwauchi-Paradis, a paramedic who responded to the park, testified the teen was “obviously deceased” and efforts to resuscitate her would have been “absolutely futile.”

During cross-examination, defence lawyer Kevin McCullough questioned the police witnesses about a man Huggins had encountered inside Central Park while he was searching for the teen.

Huggins testified the man had told him he was part of a film crew working in the park that night McCullough asked Huggins if he had gotten the man’s name or taken his photo

Huggins said he had not

“That’s not a big distance from where (the victim’s) body was found,” McCullough noted after Huggins indicated where he had encountered the man

McCullough asked Rogers if she had made any efforts that night to identify the people involved with the film set

She said no, that police resources were initially used to secure access to the park.

“If anybody were to exit or enter, we would ID them at that point rather than going into the park and scrambling to try to figure out who was in there,” Rogers said.

The trial continues.

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