Cops seize killer's phone

As police in Nova Scotia continue their investigation into a mass killing last month that claimed 22 lives, newly released documents reveal the RCMP recently seized and searched the killer's computer, cellphone, tablet and navigation devices.

The search warrants, unsealed by a judge on Monday, do not provide details about what police found because the documents are heavily redacted.

The warrants say police were looking for firearms, ammunition, explosives, chemicals, surveillance systems, computers, electronic devices, police-related clothing, human remains and "documents related to planning mass murder events" and the acquisition of weapons.

The RCMP documents say police seized a Samsung cellphone, Toshiba laptop, Acer tablet, a data-storage card and a Garmin global positioning device from the gunman's denture clinic in Dartmouth, N.S., on April 20, the day after he was killed by police.

As well, the warrants say police have obtained data from the infotainment systems inside two vehicles seized from the same property: a 2013 Ford Taurus and a 2015 Mercedes.

Police say these systems can store data regarding navigation, texting, phone calls and internet-enabled content including traffic conditions and weather.

Meanwhile, the RCMP have filed a so-called production order with telecommunications provider Telus Communications Inc., based in Scarborough, Ont. The order says the Mounties are seeking documents and data from Telus Mobility, but the specific requests have been redacted.

Investigators obtained warrants to search at least four other properties owned by the killer, three of them in the northern Nova Scotia village of Portapique, where 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman started his murderous rampage on the night of April 18.

Police confirmed that nothing was seized from 287 Portapique Beach Road, which was destroyed by fire.

At another property, 136 Orchard Beach Drive, police found something they described as "rounds," but the description on either side of that word has been blacked out.

At 200 Portapique Beach Road, Wortman's main seasonal residence, police found an ammunition box with a burnt $100 bill, a black plastic bag, a burnt receipt box and burned pieces of a rifle.

Police were also granted permission to search a second office space at 3542 Novalea Drive in Halifax, where they hoped to find another computer. But the search turned up nothing.

The documents released Monday were unsealed after a media consortium, including The Canadian Press, went to court. A document released last week detailed warning signals of paranoid behaviour and unusual purchases of gasoline by the gunman before his killings.