HALIFAX - A publication ban has been ordered on evidence presented at the preliminary hearing in Halifax for two people charged in the death of Loretta Saunders.

The preliminary inquiry got underway today for 26-year-old Blake Leggette and his girlfriend, 28-year-old Victoria Henneberry, who were charged with first-degree murder two weeks after Saunders disappeared from her Halifax apartment in February.

Leggette and Henneberry appeared in court separated by sheriffs in front of a large public gallery.

Police allege Saunders was killed the day she was last seen at an apartment she once shared with the two accused.

The 26-year-old woman's body was found in a wooded area off the Trans-Canada Highway in New Brunswick.

Saunders, an Inuit woman from Labrador, was a student at Saint Mary's University in Halifax and focused her studies on missing and murdered aboriginal women.

Four days have been set aside for the preliminary hearing.