Victim Melonie Biddersingh is shown in a Toronto Police Service handout photo. Closing arguments are expected today at the trial of Everton Biddersingh, charged with the first degree murder of his daughter, Melonie, whose body was found in a burning suitcase 21 years ago.Toronto Police Service/The Canadian Press
Closing arguments are expected today at the trial of a man charged with first-degree murder in the death of his daughter, whose body was found in a burning suitcase 21 years ago.
Everton Biddersingh has pleaded not guilty in 17-year-old Melonie's death.
Melonie's charred body was found in a burning suitcase north of Toronto in 1994, but went unidentified until a tip led to her father's arrest nearly four years ago.
The trial has heard that Melonie and two brothers came from Jamaica, where they were born, to Canada in 1991 to live with their father and stepmother.
Jurors have heard that the children were not sent to school, despite wanting to attend, and were allegedly mistreated.
One of Melonie's brothers has testified that the girl suffered brutal beatings, food deprivation and gut-wrenching abuse at the hands of her father.