TORONTO — The wife of a man accused of killing his 17-year-old daughter two decades ago says she didn't tell anybody about her stepdaughter's death for years because she was living in fear of her husband, whom she called "a monster."
Elaine Biddersingh — also charged in the case and facing a separate murder trial next year — has told Everton Biddersingh's trial that it wasn't until more than 10 years later that she confessed to a pastor that the girl whose body police found in a burning suitcase north of Toronto was her stepdaughter Melonie.
Elaine Biddersingh says she told the pastor Melonie died in the family apartment, and her body was then placed in the suitcase and set on fire.
She says the pastor told her he had to go to police with the information, and she recalls she told him: "Pastor, do what you gotta do."
Everton Biddersingh has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in Melonie's 1994 death.
The girl's identity remained a mystery for years until a tip to police led to the arrest of Biddersingh and his wife in March 2012.
Biddersingh's trial has heard that in 1991, Melonie and two brothers came from Jamaica, where they were born, to Canada to live with their father and their stepmother.
Jurors have heard that the children weren't sent to school and were allegedly mistreated. Melonie's younger brother, Dwayne, died accidentally in June 1992.
On Monday, Elaine Biddersingh testified that her husband was an abusive spouse who controlled everyone in his family.
She told court that her husband hit Melonie with a belt, confined her in a tiny closet and rationed her food when he was angry with her.
Elaine Biddersingh testified that her husband also beat her, punched her in the face, kicked her, and would spit in her face.
After Melonie's death, Biddersingh said her husband told her to explain the teen's disappearance by saying she ran away to the U.S. with friends.
