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The prosecution has finished presenting its evidence at a B.C. murder trial with testimony from a pathologist who said the body of a woman killed in April 2024 had multiple wounds on her hands, consistent with “defensive-type” injuries.
Dr. Eric Bol told the jury in the second-degree murder trial of Vitali Stefanski in Kamloops, B.C., that defensive injuries happen when someone uses a part of their body to “ward off a sharp object,” resulting in injuries to their hands or forearms.
Vitali Stefanski has pleaded not guilty to murdering his ex-wife, 44-year-old Tatjana Stefanski, who had been reported abducted before her body was found.
Stefanski’s defence lawyer, Tony Lagemaat, said he would inform the court on Tuesday if he would be presenting evidence in the case.
Bol testified Monday that Tatjana Stefanski’s body had seven stab wounds to her chest, and 14 more superficial “sharp-force injuries” to her arms and legs in addition to the injuries to her hands.
He acknowledged while being cross-examined that injuries on the woman’s hands, while “consistent” with defensive wounds, do not conclusively mean that’s what they were.
Bol said the cause of death was “multiple sharp force injuries,” but the wounds to her chest were “more significant.”
The court heard that Tatjana Stefanski had more than a litre of blood in her chest cavity and that her heart, lungs and diaphragm were injured.
Bol told the jury that the amount of time it takes someone to die from a severe injury is “highly variable” and can depend on factors like the type of injury or the health of the person.
He said some of the injuries to the woman’s body were yellow in colour, rather than red, suggesting they occurred later in the sequence of events or after Tatjana Stefanski’s heart had stopped beating.
The jury trial has already heard that a bent and bloodied knife was found near the body and it had the DNA of both Tatjana and Vitali Stefanski.
Police officers have testified that Vitali Stefanski told them he’d murdered his ex-wife and had tried to kill himself.
During cross-examination by Lagemaat, Bol said he couldn’t comment on the chronological order of the chest stab wounds, nor could he say which wound was responsible for the death, calling it a cumulative effect of those, plus the other more superficial injuries.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2026
Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press
