The jury for a Yukon Supreme Court murder trial heard from people who knew the murder victim Monday.

Norman Larue is facing a first-degree murder charge in the death of Gordon Seybold.

Seybold's Ibex Valley cabin burned to the ground in March 2008. Human remains were found inside the rubble.

The jury heard from Angelika Lange, Seybold's former commonlaw partner and longtime friend.

Lange lived with Seybold in his cabin on the Old Alaska Highway from 1980 to 1991. They remained friends up to his death, even after they had ended their relationship.

Lange described a man who loved the Yukon and his friends. He liked to work on his property and restore old Chevy trucks.

He had a stroke about a year before his death, but worked with a speech therapist and went to the gym regularly to get himself back in shape, she said.

Seybold travelled every winter to countries like Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

He also liked to smoke marijuana and, at the time of his death, had a large marijuana grow operation on his property.

Lange told the court that when they lived together in the '80s, she sometimes helped Seybold sell marijuana that was purchased from someone else.

The grow operation was built after they ended their romantic relationship, she said.

She described approximately 600 plants growing hydroponically in a structure built on the property.

Lange admitted part of the reason she ended the relationship was because of "concerns about being involved in the business.”

She said she didn't know of any enemies Seybold had or grudges people had against him.

Lange told the jury that a few years before his death, Seybold mentioned that Jessie Asp, who used to be in a relationship with another man who lived on Seybold's property, was no longer welcome.

He didn't provide any details, and it was something he only mentioned once in passing, she said.

The prosecution is alleging that Larue, along with his financée, Christina Asp, broke into Seybold's house, beat him and burned the cabin down.

In a secretly-recorded conversation with undercover police officers, the jury has heard Larue say he went to Seybold's cabin and beat him because he had disrespected his mother-in-law.

Larue's lawyer claims he was lying when he spoke to the undercover officers as a way to impress people he believed were powerful gang members.

During his cross-examination, defence lawyer Ray Dieno tried to paint a different picture of Seybold.

Dieno asked Lange if Seybold travelled internationally for "sex holidays.” Lange said she didn't know.

He went on to suggest that someone had once tried to extort thousands of dollars from him, in exchange for not telling the police about the grow operation. Lange said she didn't know anything about that.

He suggested Seybold had once fought with someone, breaking both the person's arms and legs, then putting a rock on their gas pedal to drive their car into the river.

Lange said she didn't know about anything like that.

Dieno asked about the oil heating system in Seybold's home and whether he'd installed it himself. He suggested there was a smell of oil leaking at the cabin around the time of Seybold's death.

Lange said she didn't know who had installed the heating system. She told the jury she had "heard something about an oil leak” but only after Seybold died.

Dieno asked if Seybold had sold drugs to prominent people in the community.

Lange called the customers "average Whitehorse residents.”

The question of who knew about Seybold's grow operation came up again during the afternoon's testimony.

The jury heard from Robert Atkinson, whose property was next to Seybold's and who is also the Ibex Valley volunteer fire chief.

Atkinson said he knew about the drug operation and was a costumer "in the old days.”

Asked why he never told the police, Atkinson said, "In hindsight, I probably should have.”

The fire chief was the first person to report Seybold's cabin on fire the day of the blaze.

He told the jury he was on his way home from dropping his wife off at the airport when he saw the flames at around 6 a.m.

Atkinson said he began driving toward Seybold's home when he was stopped by a tree lying across the road.

He called that tree "a little bit suspicious.”

Atkinson told the jury that training has taught him to be suspicious of anything found blocking the way for emergency responders and slowing responses.

He turned around and went to his own house to call 911.

When the fire department arrived at around 6:25 a.m., the home was fully engulfed, Atkinson said.

He said his team didn't have the manpower nor the water to put out the flames, so they focused on preventing the fire from spreading.

There was "no chance” of anyone surviving inside the home,” he said.

About four hours after firefighters arrived on scene, the blaze had cooled down enough for firefighters to move the tin roof, one of the only remaining pieces of the structure.

Under the roof, they found what appeared to be human remains, Atkinson said.

The scene was then handed over to the coroner.

Dieno questioned whether the fire truck could have knocked over the tree that was found across the road.

Atkinson said he has never backed a truck into a tree, and neither has anyone he knows.

The trial continued today.