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Jurors in the trial of Brian Marbury heard Wednesday that police pulled a garbage bag from a Windsor hotel dumpster containing a blood-stained towel, alcohol bottles and receipts, including one signed by Sahra Bulle herself.
Sgt. Arjei Franklin of Windsor police, the Crown's final witness, testified that the bag was recovered from behind a hotel on Huron Church Road, just steps from a nearby motel where 36-year-old Bulle was last seen alive in May 2023.
Inside the bag, Franklin said, officers found a towel stained with blood, a large vodka bottle, and several receipts.
Among them was "a receipt with Sahra Bulle's signature on it," Franklin told jurors.
Other receipts showed the purchase of a shovel on May 28, 2023 at Canadian Tire, a bottle of bleach bought that afternoon at Shoppers Drug Mart, and garbage bags purchased minutes later.
The jury was shown surveillance footage last week of Marbury purchasing those items from those same stores.
On Wednesday, Franklin testified the shovel itself was never recovered.
The officer said these discoveries were part of the evidence that shifted the investigation from a missing persons file into a homicide case.
Surveillance video from the Huron Church Road motel showed Bulle entering a room on May 26, 2023.
Marbury was also seen entering that same room but at a different time on the same day.
Three days later, on May 29, 2023, Marbury was recorded leaving with a garbage bag in his hand, Franklin testified.
"I saw Sahra entering. I saw Mr. Marbury entering. I saw Mr. Marbury leaving. I did not see Sahra leaving," Franklin said.
Other footage showed Marbury placing a garbage bag into the hotel dumpster, which led to the recovery of the blood-stained towel and receipts, Franklin added.
Franklin told jurors additional surveillance showed a man resembling Marbury pushing a Herby Curby bin along Daytona Avenue in the early morning hours of May 29, 2023.
"We believe the Herby Curby was used to transport Sahra's body," said Franklin.
Hours earlier, at 2:26 a.m., another camera captured Marbury carrying what Franklin described as a human body slung over his shoulder.
"You can see him repositioning it several times," Franklin testified.
"Her legs were forward, her torso slumped over his back, and her head was swaying. I was satisfied that was Sahra's body."
On June 3, 2023, Bulle's boots and pink phone case were found discarded in a field north of the motel. Her remains were discovered three days later in a shallow grave in Northway Woods.
Franklin also testified about border records showing Marbury crossed into Canada on May 26, 2023 - the night Bulle was last seen - and returned to the U.S. three days later.
Working with Detroit police, investigators confirmed Marbury’s Detroit address through his mother, who told them it was unusual not to have heard from him during that period.
After court concluded Wednesday, Marbury's lawyer, Ken Marley, said Franklin will be cross-examined Thursday before he announces whether the defence will call any evidence of its own.
Marbury, a U.S. citizen from Michigan, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, but guilty to indignity to a human body.
This trial first started on Sept. 16.