The murder trial of Douglas Hales got underway in Saskatoon Monday morning.
Hales is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 25-year-old Daleen Bosse who was last seen in 2004.
Bosse’s remains were discovered northeast of Saskatoon in 2008.
The Aboriginal woman from the Onion Lake Cree Nation was a university student at the time of her death.
Hales is also facing a charge of offering an indignity to a human body for allegedly setting her remains on fire.
The trial has been delayed several times because Hales has changed or fired a number of lawyers.
The Crown’s first witness was Shawn Pauliuk who worked with Hales at Jax nightclub in Saskatoon in 2004.
The two were both employed as doormen at the nightclub.
Pauliuk testified he saw Hales and Bosse together at the bar shortly before her disappearance in May 2004.
Pauliuk told the court he later recognized Bosse as the woman in a missing persons poster at the nightclub a few weeks later.
The former bouncer added Hales had told him at an after work get together he was interested in “hooking up” with an Aboriginal girl around the time of Bosse’s disappearance.
Pauliuk also told the court Hales had been living with another co-worker but left both the living arrangement and his job at the nightclub a short time after Bosse went missing.
Defence lawyer Bob Hrycan attacked Pauliuk’s credibility making note of his lengthy criminal record for theft and fraud and referring to him at one point as a “career con-man.”
He also questioned the accuracy of the self-confessed drug addict’s memory from ten years ago and why Pauliuk waited until 2009 to make a statement to police.
The trial continues on this morning.