The second-degree murder trial of Dennis Oland hearing from a Saint John police officer who testifies that in October of 2013 he was tasked with following Dennis Oland, who is accused of killing his father, Richard Oland. Richard Oland’s body was discovered face down in a pool of blood in his office on Canterbury Street in uptown Saint John in July of 2011.
Constable Shawn Coughlan says he received the assignment to follow Dennis Oland in order to establish his routine and he did so for four days.
Coughlan says in December of 2012 he was tasked with obtaining a cast-off DNA sample from Bob McFadden, who worked with Richard Oland at Far End Corporation and would become president following Richard’s death. In an interview between Dennis Oland and Constable Stephen Davidson on July 7, 2011, Dennis said that McFadden was the guy who was closest to his father describing him as both a right hand man and a friend.
Coughlan says he followed McFadden to a restaurant and asked for a table in the same area as McFadden. He watched the two people and after they finished the meal and paid the bill he took out a latex glove, put it over the straw he had seen McFadden drinking from and put it in a brown paper bag.
In February of this year Coughlan was tasked with obtaining a DNA sample from Derek Oland, Richard’s brother and Dennis’ uncle, but he was unsuccessful. This testimony being heard on day 27 of the murder trial. 65 days have been set aside.
Reporter Laura Lyall is covering the Dennis Oland murder trial and is live-tweeting from the courtroom. You can follow along by going to the CHSJ News Twitter page or the Wave News Twitter page.
