'It was the darkest day for me,' mother of teenage girl found dead in Burnaby tells jury

The mother of a 13-year-old girl whose body was found in a Burnaby, B.C., park six years ago says her "heart was bleeding" when she found out her daughter had died.

The Chinese woman, who can't be identified because of a publication ban protecting the identity of her daughter, is testifying for a third day at the B.C. Supreme Court murder trial of Ibrahim Ali, who has denied murdering the girl.

The woman, testifying though a Mandarin-language interpreter, says she searched for the girl at a nearby library and at the entrance to Burnaby's Central Park, where her body would later be found.

The mother told the jury she thought she had to wait 24 hours to report her daughter missing because those are the rules in China.

But a friend told her that in Canada she should report her daughter missing right away.

She says she gave a recorded statement to police and was later told her daughter's body had been found in the early hours of July 19, 2017.

"It was the darkest day for me," she said.

Crown attorney Isobel Keeley said in an opening statement that the court would hear evidence showing the murder was random, but DNA results would prove Ali sexually assaulted the girl.

Keeley said the evidence would show the girl was passing through a neighbourhood park when she was dragged off a pathway into the forest by Ali, sexually assaulted and strangled.

The defence has not yet told the jury its theory of events.