ALFRED — The murder trial of a New Hampshire man ”“ accused of killing his former fiancée in Maine and burying her body on his family’s property in New Hampshire ”“ was scheduled to begin this morning at York County Superior Court.
Opening statements were expected to begin sometime after 9 a.m., after the jury, picked last week, was to view the apartment where Kelly Gorham lived just a mile or two from the courthouse.
Prosecutors say Jason Twardus, of Rochester, N.H., her former fiancé, killed her.
The couple had apparently been engaged to marry, but the relationship broke off sometime in the summer of 2007. Gorham, a nursing student, was reported missing Aug. 8, 2007 when she didn’t show up for a shift at Maine Medical Center, where she was working as an intern. She was last seen, neighbors said, at about 11 p.m. the previous evening.
Gorham died of strangulation, according to a police affidavit. Her body was found in a shallow grave in Stewartstown, N.H., about 163 miles from her home, on land owned by Twardus’ father, Brian Twardus, on Labor Day weekend of 2007.
The 30-year-old nursing student was found clothed, but without shoes or socks, according to the court documents. Buried with her was a box of photos in a plastic bag, a component of her cell phone, a purse, underclothing and other items. Police said a fingerprint on the plastic bag and one of the photos was identified as belonging to Twardus. Her body was covered by a comforter that her landlady said she had previously seen in Gorham’s apartment.
Information in the affidavit, filed at York County Superior Court, connects Twardus to Colebrook, N.H., about seven miles from Stewartstown, on Aug. 8.
According to the documents prepared by Maine State Police investigator Michael Zabarsky, police reviewed an Aug. 8, 2007 surveillance tape from a Colebrook, N.H. convenience store, which shows a male walking into the store and purchasing two drinks and gasoline between 11:59 a.m. and 12:08 p.m. According to Zabarsky, the vehicle resembles the 1997 Subaru Impreza owned by Twardus.
Twardus was interviewed by police several times, according to the court documents, and there were alleged inconsistencies in his replies to his whereabouts in the days prior to Gorham’s disappearance. Twardus had said he had been fishing in Biddeford Pool on Aug. 6, and had stopped in Alfred and parked across the road from Gorham’s apartment to answer a call of nature. He later said he couldn’t remember whether he had been in Alfred the following night.
Twardus is represented by Portland attorneys Dan Lilley and Darrick Banda.
Assistant Attorney General William Stokes will prosecute.
Maine State Police conducted more than 75 interviews and there were intense searches of woods and fields within a 20-mile radius of Gorham’s apartment in the days after she disappeared. As Maine and New Hampshire state police questioned Twardus at his Rochester home, they learned of the Stewartstown property.
Twardus has been held at York County Jail without bail since he was arrested in January 2009.
The trial is expected to last two weeks.
A murder conviction in Maine carries a prison term of 25 years to life.
— Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 or twells@journaltribune.com.
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