Security footage shown in Kelowna Supreme Court on Thursday showed the final hours of Rama Gauravarapu’s life before she was murdered in a West Kelowna hotel room.
Police obtained the footage following the arrest of Tejwant Danjou, Gauravarapu’s common-law partner, for second-degree murder related to her death in 2018.
The video timeline shows the couple arriving at the Best Western in West Kelowna just after 8 p.m. on July 21, 2018.
Just 24 hours later, police were called to the same hotel room to find Gauravarapu lying on the ground, covered in blood and dying.
The footage follows Danjou and Gauravarapu throughout the day leading up to the murder.
The two appeared to be on a normal vacation — walking down the hotel hallway holding hands before heading to Mission Hill Family Estate winery, where they spent much of the day on July 22, 2018.
After an alleged argument at the winery, Danjou and Gauravarapu left the winery separately.
After arriving back at the hotel just after 5 p.m., Danjou spent much of the next hour walking around the hotel lobby and hallways.
Gauravarapu arrived shortly after Danjou and immediately headed to her room. This is the last time she was seen on video.
Around 6:30 p.m., Danjou went into the same hotel room.
From that point on, the video follows the people working at the hotel’s front desk.
Following a noise complaint, a hotel worker went to check on the room occupied by Danjou and Gauravarapu.
According to testimony from Sgt. Justin Abels, the employee opened the door to a man, who told her ‘things were fine’.
Looking past the man, she saw Gauravarapu lying on the ground in what she believed to be blood or wine. Gauravarapu asked the employee to call 911.
The video then shows the employee coming back downstairs and getting her colleague at the front desk to call the police.
She was shaking and appeared to be crying.
RCMP showed up to the hotel around 7:20 p.m.
Following the police investigation, Danjou was located, with the help of the RCMP dog service, in a dumpster near the crime scene and subsequently arrested.
Const. Hartridge testified that during that arrest, he heard Danjou say, ‘what is homicide?’
The trial is set to continue throughout the month.
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