Badgerow’s defence

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Robert Badgerow had sex with Diane Werendowicz, but that doesn’t prove he killed her, a jury heard today in Kitchener. The Hamilton man is on trial for the fourth time for the 1981 rape and murder of the young nursing assistant.

The defence closing took the entire day and Robert Badgerow had several family members in court for support, so did Diane Werendowicz, her nephew who was 10 at the time and his mother, Diane’s sister in law.

Robert Badgerow doesn’t remember much about the one night stand he says he had with Diane Werendowicz shortly after meeting her at the bar in June of 1981, but that’s not surprising, his lawyer told the jury today. It wasn’t until 1998, 17 years later, that he had reason to think about the casual sex when police identified him as a suspect through DNA. But the crime scene evidence doesn’t add up to rape, Badgerow’s lawyers told the jury. DNA would have run to the front of her jeans had she been raped and then put face-down in the creek. She would have more injuries to her back and legs. Her panties were nearby and had no DNA, but that’s easily explained Badgerow’s lawyers said, she could have put them in her purse after sex in Badgerow’s car.

Then Badgerow’s lawyers say, she was attacked when she walked home pulled into the ravine by the strap of her purse and later strangled with it. The purse would have been thrown about in the struggle and that’s why the contents, including the panties were strewn about the crime scene. The killer could have been Brian Miller, a violent sex offender at the time. He testified he never killed anyone, but his assaults were similar to the attack on Werendowicz and if his semen had been found inside Werendowicz, this case would have been closed long ago, Badgerow’s lawyers said. Miller often left his victims before depositing DNA.

As for the 911 call, his lawyers say the only people who identified Badgerow as the voice on the call did so after his arrest for the crime and they say, the call was never properly traced, did it really did come from the gate six phone booth? The receiver was cut and bagged for evidence before police verified they had the right location.
The crown will wrap up its case tomorrow.