The mother of Ian Bush  says she still does not know how long her son’s body lay in the holding room of the RCMP in Houston before it was moved to Kamloops for an autopsy. 

Ian had been shot to death by RCMP Constable Paul Koester in the RCMP building in Houston on  the night of October 29th, 2005.  

Sergeant Chuck Duncan of the RCMP Forensic Identification Section testified he went into the room where Bush’s body lay  at some point in the afternoon of October 30th and turned the heat down because the temperature in the room was above 20 degrees.

Lynda Bush says "I don’t know when the body was actually moved."

The lawyer for the Bush family, Howard Rubin, says it was three days; the night of October 29^th, the whole day of the 30^th, and at least a half day on 31^st.

Testimony today before Coroner Shane DeMeyer indicated there had been a violent struggle leading up to Bush being shot in the back of the head.

Sergeant Jim Hignell, a blood specialist, painted a picture to the jury of his interpretation of the crime scene.  He said  he believed that Bush was on top of Koester on a couch in the room. Bush had Koester in a choke hold. Koester was able to draw his service revolver and beat Bush with the barrel end while on the bottom of the pile, and then, fearing for his life, pulled the trigger.

No evidence has been introduced showing any bruise marks to Koester’s throat area.

Howard Rubin produced for the court a pair of life like statues and asked Sergeant Hignell to reproduce the struggle to the jury. Hignell explained that he would have difficulty in getting himself into a position to fire the gun into the back of Bush’s head.

Under further cross examination Sergeant Jim Hignell testified that he spoke to RCMP Counsel last night. What was said during that conversation is not known because of a client privilege.

The inquest was told that the struggle by Bush and Koester took place at about the seating level on the couch with Bush on top of Koester.

The shooting took place three blocks away from the arena where Bush and some friends had attended a hockey game; they had come out of the arena and were apparently drinking a beer when the police showed up. When Bush failed to give his right name to Koester, he was taken to the detachment and then taken into the interrogation room.

Testimony  will show that Koester said he turned on the tape machine to get a video and audio conversation of the event.  Police would find out later there was not tape in the machine.

Constable Paul Koester, who is said to be stationed in Williams Lake, will testify tomorrow. He was scheduled to appear today but Counsel agreed that it would be better to have all of his testimony and cross examination conducted at one time.

Koester is expected to testify that he tried to hit Bush with the barrel of the gun several times and then, fearing for his life, pulled the trigger as he was blacking out.