Seventeen years after 19-year-old Jennifer Cusworth was killed and dumped in a ditch in Kelowna, B.C., her accused killer had his first day in court at a preliminary hearing on Monday.
Neil Snelson, a father of four and Christian musician, was arrested for the 1993 killing in October after new DNA evidence provided a break in the cold case.
Police say Snelson and Cusworth had both attended a large late-night house party the night she was murdered.
At the Kelowna courthouse on Monday, Cusworth's parents said they were bracing themselves for the evidence that they were about to see.
"Things like the video they're going to show this afternoon of the body in the ditch, that's going to be very, very hard to see, but we'll see it," Jennifer's mother Jean Cusworth said.
Father Terry Cusworth said he hoped the video would bring some closure for the family, as difficult as it may be to see.
"I don't know if it's going to help us, but I do believe it's something that we should watch," he said.
Monday was also the first time that the Cusworths have seen Snelson since his arrest.
"I stare at him a lot during the session. I think that's normal. To think he may have taken our daughter away from us, and he shows no emotion at all that I can see," Jean Cusworth said.
The hearing was a difficult one for people like Wayne Risso, too. He testified about how he found Cusworth's body on his Kelowna farm.
"It was very tough dealing with it. I'm as shaky now as I was 17 years ago," Risso said outside the courtroom.
The long wait for justice in Jennifer's killing is not quite over. If Snelson's second-degree murder charge goes to trial, the case won't be heard until next spring.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Kent Molgat
