A witness testified Monday he helped one of Cody Allan Legebokoff's alleged victims collect drug debts during the couple weeks before her disappearance.
Robert Fforsyth said he had just separated from his wife in August 2010 when he saw Natasha Lynn Montgomery and a friend as he was driving along the road.
"I'm gregariously extroverted and so are they ... and I said 'hey, I'm a pirate taxi cab driver, wanna go for a ride?' " Fforsyth said.
Fforsyth said he soon found himself living in an apartment along 20th Avenue where Montgomery was living with her boyfriend.
Over the next two weeks, he helped Montgomery "at least four or five times," driving her and the friend from home to home collecting drug debts. Asked if he also acted as the "muscle," Fforsyth said the two were acting as emissaries for someone else who is "quite a thug" and those who owed money did not want to see him at their doors.
Fforsyth said the last time he saw Montgomery, she had called him to ask for a ride. He was helping a friend move into a home in College Heights at the time.
"It was kind of weird because I drove a long way to drive her a short way, it was only two or three blocks," Fforsyth said.
Fforsyth said he dropped her off at Queensway and 20th at about 7 or 8 p.m. Montgomery said she was going to work the stretch along 20th and would call Fforsyth later on but never did, the court heard.
Fforsyth went to the apartment only to find no one there. Without a key to get himself in, Fforsyth said he spent the night at another friend's in a trailer park in the Hart.
The next morning, Fforsyth drove back to the apartment where he found A.J. all packed up to move. It came as a surprise, Fforsyth said, but also noted his mother had been trying to get him to move back to Fort St. John, so it was not entirely unexpected.
Fforsyth said he then drove to the welfare office where he waited for Montgomery to show up so he could collect the $20 or so she owed him for gas. Fforsyth said he waited there all day, until the office closed at 4 p.m. but never saw her although he admitted he may have dozed off at some points during the day.
Although she owed him money, Fforsyth indicated there was no bad blood between them.
"She had a great sense of humour, she was smart, she was a lot of fun to be around," Fforsyth said.
Fforsyth said he was consuming crack cocaine recreationally at the time but is now using crystal methamphetmine and his drug problem has since gotten worse.
Montgomery went missing in September 2010 and her body has never been found. DNA analysis of blood samples taken from Legebokoff's apartment as well as on an axe found in the home, matched Montgomery's profile, the court has heard in earlier testimony.
