Witness testimony in first day of Rooney murder trial
Highlights of testimony Thursday in the murder trial of Brian Rooney, 37, who is accused in the 2006 slaying of University of Vermont student Michelle Gardner-Quinn.
DIANE GARDNER-QUINN: The mother of victim Michelle Gardner-Quinn identified clothing her daughter had been wearing the night she disappeared. She and husband John Charles Quinn were visiting Gardner-Quinn for parents weekend at the Burlington university when she disappeared.
DORSEY KILBOURN: Victim's friend testified that she and her parents took Gardner-Quinn and others out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant, where Kilbourn and Gardner-Quinn drank "sake bombs," which are made of beer with hot sake dropped in it.
TOMMY LANG: Childhood friend and former boyfriend from Arlington, Va., testified that Gardner-Quinn called him using Rooney's cell phone after her battery died. When he called the number back, Rooney answered. "He said something to the effect of `I guess you want to speak with this beautiful brunette standing next to me' and I said `Yeah.'" When Gardner-Quinn went missing the next day, he called Rooney again and Rooney told him they had parted after the previous night's phone call and that she may have caught a cab back to her dormitory.
JOHN CHARLES QUINN: Victim's father described seeing his daughter's image on a surveillance camera tape. "She was just walking along, talking to a young man. She was gesturing. Knowing Michelle, she was making some sort of point. She was telling him something."
DETECTIVE ANDREW FRISBIE: Burlington police officer explained how he canvassed downtown businesses in search of any that might have had surveillance cameras that captured Gardner-Quinn's image, eventually finding it at Perrywinkle's Fine Jewelry store, where a camera had caught her with Rooney, walking up Main Street toward campus.
