The presentation of very crude images of the mutilated body of Guylaine Potvin created a stir in the room on the second day of the trial of the man accused of having killed her, at the Chicoutimi courthouse.
According to an order issued by Judge François Huot of the Superior Court, no photo of the young woman’s body can be published.
During the testimony of the technician who had assessed the crime scene at the time, André Lecomte, several of these photos taken on April 28, 2000 were presented to the jury on Wednesday.
As soon as the first image appeared on the screens in the court room, a person left the room – the case having caused a lot of noise in the region, the trial is taking place in front of a large audience – while several were holding back bursts of surprise. Several relatives of Guylaine Potvin who attended the proceedings cried silently.
PHOTO FILED AS PROOF
The back of the building, rue Panet in Jonquière, where Guylaine Potvin and her two roommates rented an apartment in the basement.
“There are marks on both eyes, eyebrows and neck. Marks around the eyes, the nose, the mouth,” notably listed the retired investigator from the Sûreté du Québec, describing the half-naked body of the young woman, left for dead with her t-shirt pulled up above from his chest.
“It’s a good mess,” recalled Mr. Lecomte, commenting on the state of Guylaine Potvin’s room, which was usually tidy according to what his classmates had indicated the day before, during their testimonies.
A belt and a box of condoms
André Lecomte took care during a good part of the morning to describe to the jury one by one the photos taken in the apartment that the victim shared with two roommates. “It’s in order. I don’t see any traces of violence. I don’t see anything in particular,” he said about the general state of the apartment before focusing on the interior of Guylaine Potvin’s bedroom.
“We finish and we stay alive”, we could also read in a letter signed “Guylaine Potvin”, left on the desk of her roommate and photographed by the investigator, a few weeks before the end of the session at the CEGEP where the two young women were studying.
André Lecomte also drew the attention of the jury members to the images showing the two items seized at the scene and from which traces of DNA could be taken: a half-full box of condoms which was at the foot of the young woman and a belt with a broken buckle.
PHOTO FROM FACEBOOK
Marc-André Grenon, the accused
Nearly 24 years after the events, the two pieces of evidence were presented in plastic bags that the jurors were able to handle.
Marc-André Grenon, 49, was arrested in Granby on October 12, 2022 following a surveillance operation that the authorities were able to carry out using an innovative genetic analysis technique. He is accused of sexually assaulting and killing Guylaine Potvin, but has pleaded not guilty to both charges.