Police officers testified Thursday about how they discovered key pieces of evidence after bursting into Robert William Pickton's trailer in Port Coquitlam, B.C., in a firearms search.

They were testifying during the third week of Pickton's trial on six of 26 first-degree murder charges involving mostly women who were missing from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Pickton has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Const. John Cater told B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster that, when the raid took place in February 2002, he was working on the police task force that was investigating the disappearances of dozens of women from the troubled Vancouver neighbourhood.

Another police officer, who wasn't working on the missing women case, got a search warrant after a paid informant tipped him off that there were illegal guns stashed at the Pickton family's pig farm in suburban Port Coquitlam.

Cater said he went along because Pickton was considered a person of interest in the case.

Cater told the jury that the search uncovered an inhaler bearing the name of Serena Abbotsway, one of the six alleged victims in the trial. Cater said he began viewing Pickton as the prime suspect in the missing women case after seeing the date on the inhaler: it had been issued only a few days before Abbotsway was last seen alive.

"I knew that … the established date last seen for Serena Abbotsway was on or about early August first," Cater said.

Cater testified that he called the task force's co-ordinator at home when officers discovered women's belongings, which led to the firearms search being suspended.

Notebook, inhaler led to new search

Earlier Thursday, Cpl. James Petrovich testified he couldn't contain his curiosity when he and three other officers first raided the trailer.

Petrovich told the jury that Pickton was already down on the floor and had been handcuffed by other officers.

Based on the information from a paid informant, Petrovich said he knew where one of the illegal weapons might be found and headed straight for it.

He said he reached up to a shelf above the furnace and discovered a loaded .22- calibre revolver. The barrel was wrapped in clear cellophane and had a sex toy attached to it.

The jury has already heard that the sex toy had on it both the DNA of Pickton and Mona Wilson, another of the women that Pickton is accused of killing.

Petrovich said he emptied the gun and found one spent cartridge, along with five unfired bullets.

Beside the gun, Petrovich also found boxes of ammunition for a .357 Magnum, the court was told.

Petrovich said he then searched the bedroom and found several pieces of jewelry in the headboard. He also found several knives and a notebook with a woman's name on it.

The officer said he had already heard that an inhaler belonging to Abbotsway had been found in another room in a gym bag.

Just days later, police began a massive search of the Pickton property, looking for evidence related to dozens of missing women. That search lasted almost two years.

Blood expert testifies

The last witness to testify Thursday was John Melliss, a blood splatter expert who gave jurors a gruesome lesson in crime scene investigation.

Melliss testified he found bloodstains through the sleeping area and on the cabinets and a pair of bloody running shoes in the closet.

The judge agreed Thursday to the jurors' request for a one-week spring break and a two-week summer break. The trial is expected to last about a year.

Pickton is to face a separate trial on the other 20 counts of first-degree murder.