The daughter of a Manitoba woman killed when an off-duty police officer rear-ended her small car said she came across the grisly scene just moments after the crash, an inquiry heard Tuesday.

Crystal Taman was driving to job as a dental assistant along a highway just north of Winnipeg in February 2005 when Derek Harvey-Zenk plowed into her tiny car with his pickup truck after a night of partying with fellow officers.

Crystal's daughters, Tara and Kristin, were no more than 15 minutes behind in another car.

From a distance, the sisters could tell there was an accident because the highway was backed up. Approaching the crash scene, they could see their mother's tiny yellow car.

"When we pulled up, they were pulling a tarp over top of it,'' Tara said Tuesday at a judicial inquiry into the prosecution and investigation of Harvey-Zenk.

The sisters were immediately escorted to the back seat of a police cruiser, where they say they were held until their father arrived, in spite of pleas to be released.

Those frantic moments could come into question later this summer at the inquiry.

"We know you made a number of observations in the back of the police car... At a later date, we'll deal with your observations in more detail,'' said David Paciocco, the inquiry's lead lawyer.

Prosecutor Marty Minuk said something about the sisters' observations last August in front of her father and two siblings, Tara told the inquiry.

"He made the comment... that the only two people who actually knew what had happened were standing there with them, and he pointed at me and my sister and said that would be the "ace up our sleeve'' down the road,'' Tara said.

But neither Minuk or police ever interviewed the women about what they saw from the back of the cruiser, Tara said.

Charges against Harvey-Zenk initially included impaired driving causing death and refusing a breathalyzer. He later received a plea bargain that saw him plead guilty only to a charge of dangerous driving causing death.

Harvey-Zenk, who had already resigned from the Winnipeg police force, was sentenced to two years' house arrest. The sentence set off a firestorm of controversy in Manitoba, and sparked the judicial inquiry, which heard from its first witness Monday.

Crystal's husband of 22 years, Robert Taman, testified Monday that he found out from a relative _ not justice officials _ that the crash was caused off-duty Winnipeg policeman whose pickup truck, according to one witness, smelled like alcohol.

As soon as he heard a police officer was involved in rear-ending his wife's tiny car, Robert Taman said he was "scared'' about police looking to "protect their own.''

Also Tuesday, Crystal's son Jordan said Minuk informed the Taman family there wasn't enough evidence to prove alcohol was a factor in the crash.

The 23-year-old said he felt angry at the news while his father broke down in tears.

"That was our message to get across, was the alcohol-related charges,'' Jordan said.

Crystal's three children said they hope the summer-long inquiry helps bring the closure they have been seeking for more than three years.

"I mean, every day, my whole family wakes up and this is on their minds,'' said Tara. "To be able to think of my mom in a positive way, not in such a negative mess of what's happened.''

The inquiry is scheduled to resume Monday with testimony from Crystal's parents, Victoria and Sveinn Sveinson.

With a report from CTV's Kelly Dehn.