Richard Oland's secretary describes finding body

There was a "terrificallyvile odour" coming from Richard Oland'suptownSaint Johnoffice when his secretary, Maureen Adamson, arrived at work on the morning ofJuly 7, 2011.

It "just hit you immediately," upon opening the door, Adamson testified on Thursday, atthe second-degree murder trial of Oland'sson, Dennis Oland.

"It was really bad," she said, adding she had no idea what it was andthat she had never encountered anything like it before.

Nothing in the investment firmoffice, located on the second floor of 52 Canterbury St.,initially seemed "out of the norm," said Adamson.

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But as she walked into the room and set a tray of Tim Hortons coffees down on a table, she saw "two legs protruding on the floor."

Adamson didn't realize at the time it was Richard Oland's bludgeonedbody that was lying face down in a pool of blood near his desk.

46 wounds on body

The prominent businessmanhad suffered 46 blows to his body, including six defensive wounds to his hands and 40 sharp- or blunt-force injuries to his head and neck, the courtroom heard on Wednesday.

Adamson "panicked" and rushed downstairs to the Printing Plus business on the first floor of the same building and called out for help.

She told one of the employees, Preston Chiasson, that"something was wrong" and hewent back upstairs with her.

They didn't go very far into the office and didn't touchanything, saidAdamson.As soon as Chiasson saw the body, he called 911, or another emergency response number, to report the situation and they were instructed to leave the office, which they did, she said.

They went back downstairs to Printing Plus and within minutes, it was "just sort of bedlam," as police cars "wailed down the street."

"I don't like to hear sirens anymore," said Adamson, who managed to maintainher composure as she recounted the grisly events and led the jurythrough some of the 119police photos of the crime scene, which each jurorhad hard copies of and whichwere also displayed on large monitors in the courtroom.

Dennis Oland, 46, is the last known person to have seen his fatheralive, lead Crown prosecutor P.J. Veniot told the courtroom on Wednesday. Hehad visited him at his Far End Corporationoffice the night before.

Adamson saysDennis Oland arrived around 5:30 p.m., just before she left the office for the day.

His father greeted him warmly and asked how he was making out with an Oland family tree project they were working on, she said.

The men were "so engrossed" in their conversation, that Adamson doesn't think they heard her when she left around 5:45 p.m., saying, "goodbye fellas."

Richard Olandwas sitting at his desk at the timeand his son was standing beside him, she said.No one else was in the office and she checked to ensure a door leading to the alleyway was locked before she left, the courtroom heard.

Dennis Oland was wearing a brown jacket, according to Adamson. She says she noted what he was wearing because it was such a hot day and the air conditioner "was blasting."

In a statement to police, Dennis Oland said he was wearing a navy blazer when he went to visit his father. But videotaped surveillance shows he was wearing a brown sports jacket, the courtroom heard.

Police subsequentlyseized a brown sports jacket from his bedroom closet. The jacket had blood on it and the DNA profile matched that of his father, the Crown said.

Adamson was shown a photo of Dennis Oland, which wassubmitted into evidence, labelled "Dennis Brunswick House 10,32,40,34." It shows him wearing a brown jacket, but Adamson couldn't say with certainty whether it was the same one.

Adamson, who began her testimony on Wednesday, is the Crown's first witness.

The trial continues on Friday with her continued cross-examination by defence lawyer Gary Miller.

The trial is scheduled to run untilDec. 18.