Woman left trail of blood in burning basement, trial told

TORONTO - Jurors looked at police photographs and watched video of bloody handprints of a university criminology student whose throat was slit before a killer set her ablaze. Carina Petrache, 23, left a trail of blood as she raced from the basement of her Huron St. home and into the kitchen where she collapsed. In her opening to the jury Monday, Crown attorney Jennifer Stanton said accused murderer Farshad “Shawn” Badakhshan, who was dating Petrache, trapped her in his basement bedroom by lighting a fire on July 2, 2010.

Badakhshan, 31, who has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, contends he’s not criminally responsible because he was suffering from a mental disorder at the time. The Crown showed police video and photographs of the charred basement — where much of the blood had been washed away by firefighters. They extinguished four fires set by the accused and diluted the bloody stains on the bedding. The accused man was also caught in the fire and lost a leg, most of his ears and has a disfigured face, court heard. But the victim’s bloody handprints on the door, the bannister and walls remained intact since the fire hoses never sprayed those areas.

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/01/21/woman-left-trail-of-blood-in-burning-basement-trial-told