Badgerow trial- Oct. 18th

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A Stoney Creek woman stifled sobs on the stand in Kitchener today, as she testified at the Robert Badgerow murder trial. Lori Allen recalled convincing fellow nursing assistant Diane Werendowicz to go out for drinks the night she was killed.

Lori Allen was also in her early 20s and worked at McMaster hospital with Diane Werendowicz in 1981 but the first time they went out socially was June 19, after a 12 hour shift. Allen’s voice broke as she remembered. She said they both went home to change, then met at Werendowicz’ apartment in Stoney Creek. They drank water and smoked a joint. Allen says she had a lot of friends at the bar that night, and sometime before midnight she returned to her table to find Werendowicz had already left. She assumed she had taken a cab.

The jury has been told that Robert Badgerow’s sperm was found inside Werendowicz’s dead body, so they must have had sex within 12 hours of her death. Allen doesn’t remember Werendowicz talking to any men that night. Robert Badgerow’s lawyer has suggested they had consensual sex and that she was murdered by someone else.

Later court heard from a botanist who analyzed some of the vegetation from the crime scene. He said Werendowicz must have been lying on the ground to get burrs stuck in her hair and he said her shoes must have been off and her feet must have been pushing into the ground, the way the burrs were so firmly anchored in her socks.

There’s enough courtroom time set aside for this case to last until January, but we’re now in the fourth week and the crown seems to be quickly moving through the evidence. The jury is back Wednesday morning and we expect they’ll hear from lead investigator Steve Hrab.