Neighbour heard 'terrifying scream' after daughter discovered bodies

Minto, N.B.,resident Paul LeBlanc told a first-degree murder trial he believed Fred Fulton's daughter was "off her rocker" when he found her screaming and ranting incoherently outside her father's home on the afternoon of April 26, 2005.

LeBlanc, 47, who lived across the street from Fred Fulton and Verna Decarieon Slope Road in Minto, testified Wednesday that he was talking with his wife about what to cook for supper when he heard a "terrifying scream," raced to his bedroom window and saw his elderly neighbour's daughter, Debbie Mowat, in front of the Fulton home.

Believing Fulton must havehad a heart attack, LeBlanc grabbed his cordless phone and rushed outside to call 911.The truck drivertold the court Mowat said, "Come help me, my father's dead," and grabbed his hand, pulling him toward the house. "She kept repeating, 'somebody took his head.'"

Later that day, police investigators determined Fulton, 74, and Decarie, 70, had been dead for three days. The couple, who lived together for a decade in the Slope Road home, were stabbed to death. Fulton, a well-known country musician, had been beheaded.

Fulton and LeBlanc's neighbour, Gregory Allan Despres, 24,is now on trial forfirst-degree murder. Despres lived next door to Fulton and Decarie and is accused of breaking into their home through their back door and fatally attacking them. He has pleaded not guilty to the crimes.

LeBlanc's testimony comes three days into the trial, being heard by Judge Judy Clendenning in Fredericton provincial court.

LeBlanc told the court he didn't believe Mowat until his wife peeked in the back door of the Fulton home and told him that she had seen blood in the kitchen. "Then I realized what Debbie was saying actually made sense," he said.

Fulton's daughter is expected to testify about the discovery by video-conference on Wednesday afternoon.

Crown prosecutor Paul Hawkins says he'll use blood evidence to make his case against Despres, who crossed the United States border two days after the killings. Border officials confiscated a cache of weapons from the accused, including a sword, brass knuckles and a chainsaw flecked with reddish-brown stains.

Despres was arrested on a warrant that was issued after he failed to appear in court for sentencing on an assault conviction, and extradited back toCanada. He has been in custody since April 2005.

Despres's court-appointed lawyer, Fredericton-based Ed Derrah, says his client is innocent until proven guilty.