Danielle Harper was stabbed five times in the chest and lower body, but that wasn’t enough to kill her, a pathologist told the trial of a man charged with her murder.

Harper’s body was in such a state of advanced decomposition when it was found inside Silas Ammaklak’s Manitoba Avenue apartment in July 2020 that it was impossible to determine an exact cause of death, Dr. Charles Littman testified Tuesday.

“There were several injuries to the body, but these were not lethal in nature and there was no natural disease to explain the death,” Littman told court.

None of the stab wounds penetrated Harper’s vital organs or vital blood vessels, Littman said.

Ammaklak, 53, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the death of the 35-year-old woman.

Court heard Harper’s body was unrecognizable and was initially believed to be Ammaklak when it was discovered by the apartment owner on July 24. Harper was reported missing from her home at New Directions supportive housing 10 days earlier.

In a lengthy police interview, a video of which was provided to court, Ammaklak told investigators he met Harper at a bus shelter at Main Street and Higgins Avenue, at which time she shared some alcohol with him before the two took a bus to his apartment.

Ammaklak said he made Harper lunch and the two drank together before he heard “whispering” voices telling him to pick up a pocketknife and stab Harper.

Ammaklak said he stabbed Harper three times and then covered her mouth and nose with his hand until she stopped breathing.

Ammaklak said he grabbed a backpack, fled the apartment and did not return before his arrest weeks later.

Littman said an autopsy would reveal evidence of smothering only if Harper struggled against her attacker and was injured. Decomposition could have served to destroy or obscure evidence of injuries Harper may have sustained to her mouth and nose when Ammaklak allegedly smothered her, he said.

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During questioning by the Crown, Littman agreed Harper could have been rendered unconscious by blows to the head that would not be detected by an autopsy and would not be able to struggle against an attacker smothering her.

Littman agreed under cross examination he had no evidence to say Harper had suffered any blows to the head.

This is not the first time Ammaklak has been before the court accused of a homicide. In 2008, Ammaklak pleaded guilty in Nunavut to manslaughter in the beating death of his wife, Susan Natar, and was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

Court at the time heard Ammaklak punched and kicked 29-year-old Natar and threw her off a balcony before dragging her back into her home and beating her to death with a piece of walrus cartilage.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter

Someone once said a journalist is just a reporter in a good suit. Dean Pritchard doesn’t own a good suit. But he knows a good lawsuit.

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