Emotion dropped from the murder trial of Karen Rodrigue Wednesday afternoon, with testimony from three men who outlined some details of what went on after Gerald Dawson's death.

The better part of the afternoon and this morning were spent on the testimony of Sgt. Brian Edmonds. In June 2004, Edmonds was a corporal in the Whitehorse RCMP major crimes unit and was in charge of the investigation into Dawson's death.

Edmonds said he was called to Dawson's house in the early afternoon of June 27, where several other officers were waiting along with Dawson's daughter, Shirley, and a friend of the Dawson family named James Wood (now deceased).

Wood had called the police to say he thought Dawson's body was in the house.

Edmonds said he entered the house and immediately noticed "a very pungent smell."

"My experience led me to believe the deceased had been there for some time," he said, adding that he saw what appeared to be blood on the dead man's shoulder, back and face.

"We would treat this death as we would a homicide," Edmonds told the court.

From there, the investigation started in earnest. One of the first steps was to find Dawson's blue Chevy Lumina that his daughter had noticed missing.

Shirley Dawson testified yesterday the car had been spotted by Wood parked downtown. That same day, the RCMP found the car with two people inside. Officers arrested Karen Rodrigue and Dan McGuinness for possession of alleged stolen property.

Rodrigue is being tried for the second-degree murder of Gerald Dawson in June 2004. She has pled guilty to manslaughter, but not guilty to second-degree murder. Deputy Justice John Vertes of the Yukon Supreme Court told the seven men and five women of the jury that in order to find Rodrigue guilty of second-degree murder, the Crown must prove she intended to kill or grievously harm Dawson,

Yesterday, the jury heard and the Star reported that Dawson's body was found on June 21, 2004. In fact, he was discovered on June 27, the court was told today.

During his cross-examination of Edmonds, defence counsel Richard Fowler focused his attention on a half a dozen credit and gas cards which were found around Dawson's home. Most of them were valid and none had been used since before Dawson's death. One had never been activated and still had the phone activation sticker on it.

The cards were found under Dawson's bed, in his dresser and above the stove in his kitchen.

Fowler also brought forward a list of prescriptions made out to Dawson in the months before his death. The list included two scripts for Tylenol 3 and one for Viagra. Police found the Viagra, along with about a dozen other pill bottles, in the house. They did not find any bottles or pills of Tylenol 3.

Murray Freeman briefly took the stand to tell the judge and jury he bought a Huskqvarna chain-saw for $100 from McGuinness on June 17, 2004. He said he was not suspicious of the saw's origins when he purchased it, but reported the transaction to police after hearing McGuinness' and Rodrigue's names in the news.

A bill of sale from the 17th was entered into evidence.

Needful Things owner Robert Huesler testified he loaned Rodrigue $30 on a chain-saw "sometime in June." Rodrigue never returned to repay the loan and pick up the saw.

Huesler also called police after he "heard through the grapevine, or media ... that Karen Rodrigue had something to do with Gerald Dawson," he said.

A pawn ticket for the loan was entered into evidence.

Several admissions were also made, statements of fact that both defence and prosecution counsels agree on. They were:

• That a friend of Dawson's in Thunder Bay, Ont. received a phone call from Dawson's number at 2 a.m. on June 17th. The phone cut out or was hung up when the friend picked up;

• That a Petro-Canada gas card belonging to Dawson's company was used three times after June 17 and was found in Dawson's car, being driven by Rodrigue;

• That someone tried unsuccessfully to use Dawson's Royal Bank client card approximately seven times in the week following his death;

• That DNA swabs taken from Dawson's genitals only showed evidence of Dawson's own DNA;

• That Dawson had a blood alcohol level of 0.021 at the time of his death;

• That an autopsy showed traces of Viagra in Dawson's system.