Jul. 19, 2005. 10:08 AM
LISA ARROWSMITH |
| DAVID BLOOM/CP FILE PHOTO |
| Michael White, 28, husband of Liana White, speaks to reporters outside his home in Edmonton last week. |
EDMONTON
- The husband of a pregnant woman missing for the last week was charged with
second-degree murder yesterday, just one day after a search party he organized
found a body.
Michael White also faces an additional charge of committing an indignity to a dead body, said police spokesperson Lisa Lammi said.
The charges followed the discovery Sunday night of a body on the city's outskirts, news that city residents both dreaded and expected ever since Liana White vanished early last Tuesday.
Police said the body would not be positively identified until after an autopsy this morning.
White's Ford Explorer was found abandoned just blocks from her home, with her purse, shoes and cell phone scattered nearby.
Nothing appeared to have been taken, and police said there were no signs of a struggle.
Michael White, a 28-year-old heavy-duty mechanic, had been barred from the family home since Saturday while police combed it for clues.
On Sunday, he issued a heartfelt denial of any involvement in his wife's disappearance.
Michael White, a former soldier, and Liana, a medical records clerk, lived an apparently happy life with their young daughter in the north Edmonton neighbourhood of Castle Downs.
One next-door neighbour, who didn't want her name used, was devastated yesterday afternoon when told that Michael White had been charged.
"It's a nightmare you can't wake up from," she said. "I still don't believe it's happened.
"(They were) regular suburban people — like a normal family. They mowed their lawn and had barbecues and worked on their house and helped other neighbours out — normal people, like all of us."
She said her husband and Michael White had been good friends for the last four years.
"His big joy in life was being a husband and father. So something has gone horribly wrong somewhere. I wasn't hopeful for a good outcome over the last few days, but to have come to this — I had no idea, not a clue."
Barb Jama, who lives across the street, held her head in her hands when told of the charges.
Jama said she knew the couple well and had talked to Liana White a week ago — just before she was last seen alive.
"I thought someone just got in the back of her car," Jama said. "I was naive."
On Sunday, before he and a crew of volunteer searchers came across the body near a farmer's field, Michael White said his nights over the past week had alternated between nightmares and sleeplessness.
"If they're thinking it was the husband, forget the husband. Let's find my wife," he told the Edmonton Sun.
Police had previously maintained Michael White was not a suspect and that there was no evidence of a crime.
The fact that Liana White is four months pregnant had prompted chilling comparisons to Scott Peterson, a California man convicted of killing his wife, Laci, and their unborn child.
But White told the Sun that unlike Peterson, he was thrilled to discover Liana was pregnant again and both were looking forward to having a sibling for their 2-year-old daughter.
The case had also raised fears that Liana White had fallen prey to a multiple killer at work in Edmonton who has yet to be caught.
But that attacker has mostly targeted prostitutes, and a spokesman for the task force investigating those deaths said they were not called in on the White case.
Back in Castle Downs, Jen Locke and Lindsay Raphael sat on their front porch yesterday watching a police officer guard the White family home across the street.
Locke, 22, has lived in the neighbourhood for over a year and said the White family seemed nice and the couple were often seen together gardening in the front yard.
Both thought it a bit strange that a search team, including Michael White, was the one to find the body Sunday.
"It's a little weird they were searching in that area," said Locke.
"But that could happen, I guess."
Police examined the area Sunday night but did not leave behind police tape or anything else to indicate the spot may be a crime scene.
However, a forensics van returned to the site yesterday — again with no explanation from police.
Down the street from their home yesterday, Noreen Day's eyes filled with tears as she switched off her lawnmower to talk about the case.
"There's a little girl who will be without a mom now, which is pretty sad," she said, adding she's been tense and nervous all week as search teams looked behind her home.
"Even when it has rained, I've thought about her out in the rain — and it's really bothered me."
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