for Liana and babe

So sad but why???? The reason(s) may be revealed. I had a feeling he did it. Her abduction happened blocks away from my home.

Edmonton man faces second-degree murder charge in death of pregnant wife
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at 20:57 on July 18, 2005, EST.
By LISA ARROWSMITH


Liana White. (CP photo handout)
EDMONTON (CP) - The husband of a pregnant woman missing for the past week was charged with second-degree murder Monday, just one day after a search party he had organized found a body.

Michael White also faces an additional charge of committing an indignity to a dead body, said police spokeswoman 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 Tuesday morning.

White's Ford Explorer was found abandoned just blocks from her home, with her purse, shoes and cellphone scattered nearby. Nothing appeared to have been taken, said police, nor were there any 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, 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 Monday 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. She 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 has 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 two-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 Monday 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."


©The Canadian Press, 2005

All of this violence against pregnant women is really starting to wig me out, man.

RIP