PICTOU, N.S. -- The boyfriend of a young woman who was stabbed to death more than two years ago says he didn't want to pick her up at the bar she was at the night she disappeared because he was driving illegally.
Mason Campbell told the first-degree murder trial of Christopher Alexander Falconer on Wednesday that there had been a party on the night of Oct. 8, 2011, at the apartment he and Amber Kirwan shared near Pictou Landing.
Falconer, 31, is on trial in the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia in Pictou in the death of Kirwan, who was 19. Her body was found in a shallow grave off a rural road outside New Glasgow about a month after she disappeared.
After a night of drinking and socializing with old school friends and work colleagues, Campbell said Kirwan decided to accompany some of them to a pool hall and bar in New Glasgow.
Campbell said he stayed behind with some others to socialize and to clean up the apartment. Although he told Kirwan he would follow her to the bar, he said he wasn't that committed to the idea.
"I wasn't set on going to the bar," he said. "I wasn't making an effort."
Campbell said Kirwan called her friend Renee Avery, who had also stayed behind and asked her to tell Campbell she needed a ride.
He spoke to Kirwan and agreed to pick her up at a convenience store a couple of minutes walk from the pool hall.
When Crown prosecutor Bill Gorman asked why he didn't go to the pool hall to pick up Kirwan, Campbell said he was worried about police being in front of the popular night spot.
"I was driving illegally at the time, no insurance and no inspection," he replied.
Campbell said he drove to the convenience store but there was no sign of Kirwan, so he parked by the local Legion branch on a side street early on the morning of Oct. 9 in hopes of seeing her approaching.
"Did you see her?" asked Gorman.
"No," Campbell replied.
Earlier Wednesday, the Crown questioned a number of Kirwan's friends who had been with her that night. Four of them identified a series of photos of dirty and torn items of clothing, and of a pair of feathered earrings as being worn by Kirwan when she was last seen.
