Defence lawyer Bob Hrycan continued to try and poke holes in police investigation techniques that eventually netted an alleged murder confession out of Douglas Hales at a Saskatoon trial Wednesday.
Hales is on trial for first-degree murder in the death of 25-year-old Daleen Bosse of Onion Lake Cree Nation who was last seen in May 2004.
Glenn Cox, a retired Saskatoon police officer, is one of the officers who interviewed Hales shortly after he was arrested for Bosse’s murder on August 10, 2008.
Under cross-examination, Hrycan accused Cox of using methods of confronting Hales with what he had previously told undercover officers and minimizing the offence to obtain an alleged murder confession out of Hales.
In the afternoon, court also heard that after two years of chasing false leads into the disappearance of Bosse, police remained empty handed.
Retired Saskatoon police officer Donald Yonkman told the Saskatoon trial Hales was the only suspect in the investigation.
However, after interviewing Hales, his friends and family a number of times – police still did not feel they had enough information to make an arrest.
Yonkman said Saskatoon police applied to the RCMP to have the investigation upgraded to an undercover operation in late 2006 and in May 2008 it was officially underway.
Within three months, an undercover Mr. Big sting operation had an alleged murder confession from Hales and he had led officers to Bosse’s remains.
In early August 2008, Hales was charged with murder.