Haughton Native On Trial For Killing And Dismembering A Woman
The trial of former Haughton resident Adam Densmore started yesterday in Boulder, Colorado. Densmore is charged with first degree murder, tampering with a corpse, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with physical evidence. He's accused of killing and dismembering his ex-girlfriend Ashley Mead.
Boulder Deputy District Attorney Lys Runnerstrom opened the trial by showing the courtroom a picture of a purple suitcase. That suitcase was found in an Oklahoma dumpster, and police discovered Mead's torso inside. Runnerstrom said:
"Inside this suitcase is horror. Inside this suitcase is the dismembered, disemboweled, headless corpse of 25-year-old Ashley Mead. The man who did this to her is the defendant, Adam Densmore. He murdered and dismembered her because he felt she was mean to him. He murdered and dismembered her because he was fixated on an idea that she was going to leave the state with their child."
Early in the investigation, authorities believed that Desnmore traveled across the country with Mead's body, including bringing her remains to his family's home in Haughton.
In a more gruesome detail, Runnerstrom explained that the prosecution believes that Densmore dismembered Mead's body in Haughton.
"At that very moment, hundreds of miles away, the defendant was in his parents' guest bathroom carefully removing each of Ashley's limbs from her body to get ready to stuff her torso into a suitcase," she said.
On Densmore's side of the opening arguments, his lawyer Jennifer Chenu instructed the jurors that it's not their job to solve the murder mystery surrounding Mead's death, but to decide if there is enough evidence to prove Densmore is guilty of what he's accused of. Chenu repeated the phrase "Where? When? How?" to the jury.
Testimony also began yesterday, with the prosecution calling 8 witnesses to the stand, including Mead's boss Erin Machado, who was the one to initially report Mead missing. Another witness called was Mead's mother, Claudia Bunce.
The trial is expected to continue over the next three weeks.