Michelle Witherell case update
Teresa
in this case, I'll post daily updates.
Teresa
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jury hears mother of dead woman
Coloradan says in-law kept changing story
By Mike Crissey
Associated Press
------------------------------------
PITTSBURGH - The mother of a woman who died after plummeting from her
third-floor balcony eight years ago testified Tuesday that her daughter was
considering divorcing the man accused of killing her.
Cathy Mellema of Littleton, mother of 24-year-old Michelle Witherell, told a
jury that her daughter talked about leaving Jeremy Witherell two months
after marrying him and considered divorce one week before she died.
"She had told me, 'You know, Mom, I don't think it's God's will for anyone
to live in an abusive situation. I'm planning to separate from Jeremy and
ask that he get professional help. ... If he wants to file for divorce, I
won't stand in his way,"' Mellema said.
Jeremy and Michelle Witherell moved to Pennsylvania from Parker after they
married.
Defense attorney Tom Ceraso grilled her on the family's investigation into
Michelle's death.
Cathy Mellema and her husband, Evert, had pressed Allegheny County, Pa.,
authorities to reopen the case. The couple offered a $50,000 reward.
Jeremy Witherell, 31, who works for a Pittsburgh newspaper, was charged with
the slaying seven years after the death.
Michelle Witherell was found injured Dec. 20, 1992, on the pavement beneath
the balcony of their apartment in suburban Pittsburgh.
Prosecutors say the death ended a volatile marriage that included beatings
and beratings of Michelle Witherell by her husband. The killing concluded a
drunken argument the couple carried from a restaurant to a bar to their
apartment, prosecutors alleged.
Cathy Mellema testified that Jeremy Witherell had told her at least six
different stories about Michelle's death. "He gave different versions and
additions to what happened," Mellema said.
Jeremy Witherell had said he had ignored his wife after the fight and last
saw her as she went onto the balcony, Mellema said.
He told Mellema that he discovered her body after looking over the railing.
The story alternated that she fell without a sound, that he heard a thump
and also that he saw her hanging from the wall, Mellema said.
Ceraso challenged Mellema's recollection of six conversations on the day she
learned her daughter had died.
Ceraso also questioned Mellema about the $50,000 reward the family offered
for information about Michelle's death and her offers to pay the expenses of
people contacted in the investigation.
Ceraso implied that witnesses were influenced to testify favorably by the
family's offers.
January 17, 2001
Teresa
Teresa
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Expert rebuts defense witness in Witherell trial
Wednesday, January 17, 2001
By Jim McKinnon, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
A criminalist hired by the family of a Monroeville woman who fell to her
death from an apartment balcony testified yesterday that there were no
traces of stucco or paint on her clothing that would suggest she had banged
into or slid off the balcony.
Jeremy Witherell, 31, of Cranberry, is on trial, charged with third-degree
murder and involuntary manslaughter in the death of his first wife, Michelle
Mellema Witherell.
Dorothy Menges, formerly a criminalist with Allegheny County, was hired in
1996 by the Mellema family to review the evidence in their effort to build a
case against Witherell.
Menges' testimony yesterday rebuts a defense theory that a skull fracture
suffered by Michelle may have occurred as she fell from the balcony of the
couple's fourth-story apartment.
Michelle Witherell, 24, was found at about 1 a.m. Dec. 20, 1992, on the
grass below their balcony at the LaVale Apartments. In addition to the skull
fracture, she suffered fractures of both wrists, her left femur, her lower
left jaw bone, and two hinge fractures at the front and back of her skull.
Menges testified that Michelle Witherell's jeans had a tar-like streak on
the back of the right leg from near the cuff and approaching her waistband.
At about mid-thigh, the streak was bisected by a short tear, as though the
pants had become snagged while sliding over some surface.
Deputy District Attorney Edward Borkowski did not explain the meaning of
Menges' testimony.
A nurse from Mercy Hospital testified yesterday that Michelle Witherell
suffered abrasions on both sides of her head and face. All of her other
injuries were to the left side of her body.
In interviews with police, Witherell has denied killing Michelle, his wife
of three months at the time of her death.
He has given various possible explanations for what happened the night his
wife died.
By most accounts, the couple had been out to dinner and drinks on Dec. 19
and later picked up more beer to take to their apartment. They were arguing
because Jeremy apparently had made a remark to a woman wearing a tight
T-shirt.
Witherell's descriptions about what happened after they got home have
varied.
Michelle Witherell's mother, Cathy Mellema, testified yesterday that she
asked him about a half-dozen times what happened, and nearly each time, he
told a different story.
While at Mercy Hospital where Michelle died, Mellema said, Jeremy told her
Michelle had been angry and arguing as he ignored her and she went to the
balcony. When she did not return right away, he went in search of her and
eventually saw her lying on the ground.
A short while later, he told his mother-in-law that he did not know what
happened, then he repeated the initial version that he told, Mellema
testified.
Shortly after the family gathered around Michelle's hospital bed and a
doctor pronounced her dead, they were milling about when, Mellema said, she
quizzed Jeremy again.
This time she said he responded that he saw her fall as he went to the
balcony to look for her.
"That's when I saw her hanging on. I wish I would've grabbed her," Mellema
said Witherell told her.
She said that she telephoned Monroeville police with that information,
knowing that it was not consistent with other versions.
In yet another version of the incident, Mellema said that Witherell said he
heard a thud while his wife was on the balcony. He told Mellema that he
thought the noise came from Michelle throwing bricks over the railing.
Finally, Mellema testified, her son-in-law said that he saw his wife leaning
on the balcony railing sipping a beer and, an instant later, he heard a thud
and found her lying on the ground.
Mellema testified that her daughter cried tears of regret on her wedding
day, Sept. 5, 1992, and that she often complained about mistreatment by her
new husband.
In one telephone call home to her parents, Michelle Witherell reportedly
told her mother that she planned to separate from her husband, demand that
he seek counseling for his temper and violent behavior, and offer him a
divorce if he did not take action.
"I don't think it's God's will to live in an abusive situation," Mellema
said her daughter concluded.
Witherell has since remarried.
Borkowski is expected to present at least one more witness today when the
trial resumes before a jury and Common Pleas Judge Gerard M. Bigley.
Teresa
Michelle Witherell died in fall, forensic pathologist testifies
Associated Press
---------------------------------------
PITTSBURGH - A medical examiner from Michigan testified Wednesday that
Michelle Witherell died in an accidental fall from the balcony of the
Monroeville, Pa., apartment she shared with her husband.
Dr. Werner U. Spitz, a forensic pathologist who was called as a defense
expert, disagreed with the conclusion of Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril
H. Wecht that her death was a homicide.
Wecht testified last week in the trial of Jeremy Witherell, 31, who is
charged with third-degree murder in the 1992 death of his wife Michelle
Witherell.
The former Parker couple had lived in Pennsylvania a few months.
Wecht believes Michelle Witherell, 24, was struck in the head with a blunt
instrument before she suffered fatal injuries in the fall from the
third-floor balcony.
But Spitz testified with "absolute certainty" that her injuries were caused
in an accidental fall, which he said was "probably related to alcohol
consumption, but not an assault."
Jeremy Witherell told police that Michelle Witherell fell or jumped from the
balcony on Dec. 20, 1992. An autopsy showed she had a blood alcohol
concentration of 0.195 percent - nearly double the limit at which a driver
could be considered legally drunk.
Wecht had reviewed the autopsy report and hospital records for Michelle's
parents, Cathy and Evert Mellema of Littleton, before he became coroner in
January 1996.
Spitz argued that all of Witherell's head injuries resulted from a "ripple
effect" when she landed on the left side of her head, causing a fracture.
Spitz said an injury to her left eye socket and the presence of red dots
nearby indicated she landed on grass on the left side of her head.
Fractures to the lower jaw and the base of her skull were "practically part
of the same trauma," he said.
"If there was an assault, there was no mark on the body that would allow you
to assume there had been an assault," Spitz said.
Deputy District Attorney Edward Borkowski had rested the prosecution's case
earlier Wednesday. Borkowski's last exhibit was a reconstruction of the
balcony to demonstrate where the 31/2-foot high railing would have been on
5-foot-8 Michelle Witherell.
Laurel Derry, a paralegal in the district attorney's office who is about the
same height, stood facing the railing and then backed against it.
Then, each juror got a chance to stand on the makeshift balcony and look
over.
The trial started on Jan. 9 and continues today.
January 18, 2001
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wecht disputed on cause of woman's death
Thursday, January 18, 2001
By Jim McKinnon, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
A forensics expert yesterday disputed Dr. Cyril H. Wecht's conclusion that
Michelle Witherell died from a blow to the head before falling from a
fourth-floor apartment balcony in Monroeville in 1992.
Testifying for the defense in the homicide trial of Jeremy Witherell, Dr.
Werner U. Spitz, a forensics scholar and Michigan educator who is co-author
and editor of the textbook "Medicolegal Investigation of Death," said he
doubted the death was homicide.
"I believe, in consideration of everything that I know on this case ... this
was an accidental fall," Spitz testified, under questioning by defense
attorney G. William Bills Jr.
The prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Edward Borkowski, sought to
discredit Spitz, challenging him with excerpts from Spitz's book. Earlier
yesterday, Borkowski rested his case against Witherell, 31, now of
Cranberry.
Witherell is charged with third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter
in a case in which the manner of death initially was ruled "undetermined"
but later changed to homicide.
Michelle Witherell, 24, was pronounced dead on the afternoon of Dec. 20,
1992, at Mercy Hospital.
Michelle's parents, Evert and Cathy Mellema of Parker, Colo., suspected
their son-in-law because of inconsistent statements he made after the
incident and because of reports that he had been physically and verbally
abusive to his wife before her death.
The Mellemas pushed for charges against Jeremy Witherell, hiring a private
investigator and paying for other information and expert cooperation,
including that of Wecht, who was in private practice at the time but later
was elected Allegheny County coroner.
In 1998, former Deputy Coroner Robert C. Hiserodt, who first made the ruling
that the manner of death was undetermined, testified at an open inquest,
ordered by Wecht, that the manner of death was homicide.
Yesterday, Spitz testified that the left side of Michelle Witherell's head
struck the ground first, causing a serious fracture and bruises to the top
left side of her brain. He said she suffered secondary head injuries caused
by the dissipation of energy from the initial impact.
Wecht earlier had testified that the injury to the side of Michelle's head
did not show the type of damage that would result from a fall of more than
30 feet. In such a fall, where there is a skull fracture, the brain actually
would be injured on the other side of the head, directly opposite the skull
injury -- called "contra-coup," he said.
In the absence of such an injury, the indication is that the skull fracture
came from a blow to the head with some type of blunt instrument, Wecht
testified.
"I don't agree with his findings," Spitz testified yesterday.
Spitz used color photo enlargements from Michelle Witherell's autopsy and a
human skull to explain his findings to the jury. Under questioning by Bills,
Spitz said that the absence of a contra-coup injury supported his
conclusions.
Defense attorneys are expected to tap an unusual pool of witnesses:
detectives from the Allegheny County police homicide squad, in part to rebut
testimony that Michelle Witherell had complained her husband was abusive
toward her.
Bills told the jury in his opening statement that several witnesses made no
mention of abuse allegations during interviews in 1992 and 1993.
Detective Gary Tallent, the first investigator to be called yesterday,
testified that he reviewed Jeremy Witherell's statements to Monroeville
police. Witherell reported that he and Michelle argued after going out to
dinner and drinking beer.
By the time they got home to the LaVale Apartments, he said that he was
ignoring his wife and began playing solitaire while she went out on the
balcony. A short time later, he said, he heard a noise and saw Michelle's
body lying on the ground below.
At the apartment, Tallent said he found things to be unkempt, but not
unusually so.
A tall can of beer and the playing cards still were on the coffee table with
a bottle of hand lotion and window cleaner.
"We found nothing in the apartment that we suspected was used as a weapon,"
Tallent testified. "Nothing was out of place, there were no blood stains on
any items or anything like that."
Testimony will resume today.
Teresa
Saturday, January 20, 2001
By Jim McKinnon, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
W. Christopher Conrad, who was the county's top homicide prosecutor eight
years ago when 24-year-old Michelle Witherell died, said in an interview
yesterday that nothing has happened to change his opinion that it was an
accident.
Conrad yesterday testified for the defense in the trial of Jeremy Witherell,
Michelle's former husband, who is charged with third-degree murder and
involuntary manslaughter.
Conrad said he re-examined the evidence about a half-dozen times after
Michelle Witherell's death on Dec. 20, 1992. He said he did so at the behest
of her parents, Evert and Cathy Mellema of Parker, Colo.
"This case has been driven by the victim's [family]," Conrad said.
The Witherells had been married for less than four months when Michelle died
after an argument that began during dinner and beers, according to
statements Jeremy Witherell gave police.
Witherell, now 31, said his wife had been alone on the balcony of their
fourth-story unit in the LaVale Apartments in Monroeville when she fell to
her death.
She suffered four skull fractures, mostly to the left side of her head, plus
fractures to her left leg and both wrists.
When Allegheny County police and prosecutors declined to file charges
against Jeremy Witherell, the Mellemas launched their own investigation,
hiring Pittsburgh private investigator Robert Meinert and seeking opinions
from various forensic experts around the country.
Among the experts was Coroner Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, who testified for the
prosecution earlier in the trial, and Dr. Mary Case, medical examiner in St.
Louis.
Case was called by the defense because her evaluation of records supplied by
the Mellemas brought her to the conclusion that Michelle Witherell's death
was accidental.
Wecht was not yet coroner when he was contacted by the Mellemas. After he
was elected in 1996, he ordered an open inquest, which eventually led to
charges against Jeremy Witherell.
Conrad said yesterday that none of the new evidence changed his mind about
the original findings that Michelle Witherell died of massive head injuries
and the cause of death was undetermined.
"Dr. Wecht believes that she was unconscious and that she was pushed over
the balcony," Conrad said yesterday after testifying.
"[Wecht] believed the thing with the wrists was something that was done
intentionally [by Jeremy Witherell], that she didn't use her hands to try to
break her fall," Conrad said.
Conrad said an inspection of the Witherells' apartment showed no signs of a
struggle and Michelle Witherell was drunk at the time of her death.
Dr. Charles Winek, former head of the county Crime Lab, testified yesterday
as a defense witness that a blood sample taken at Mercy Hospital, where
Michelle Witherell died, showed her blood alcohol level was 0.195. Winek
said that taking into account that her blood was diluted by intravenous
fluids, donated blood and the alcohol itself, her actual reading was 0.20.
In that condition, Winek testified, Michelle Witherell's vision was impaired
so that things seemed farther away than they actually were. He said that her
motor skills also would have been impaired.
Winek and Conrad were the last of an unusual cast of defense witnesses that
included five county homicide detectives who investigated the case in 1992
and 1993.
The detectives all testified that they did not uncover enough evidence to
file homicide charges. Under cross-examination by Deputy District Attorney
Edward Borkowski, detectives admitted that they never revisited the
witnesses after initial interviews.
Many of the witnesses who told police in 1992 and 1993 that the Witherells'
was a marriage without violence have since testified in the trial that
Jeremy Witherell was abusive and that his wife was about to seek a divorce.
Jeremy Witherell has remarried and now lives in Cranberry.
Defense attorneys said yesterday that they may have just one more witness
Monday before Borkowski calls rebuttal witnesses.
PattyC4303
<ctf...@homesweethome.com> writes:
Hey Teresa,
Thanks for posting all the stories on this. Due to my handicapped typing I
haven't had the energy to try and post what I think is an interesting murder
trial in my city, Pittsburgh. The husband wasn't charged until sometime after
the wife's death. If I recall correctly, the new in laws posted bail for him
when he was arrested. I guess they believe in him.
I'm curious as to whether you think this guy is guilty of killing his wife?
I'm not even sure why, but I do think he is guilty. On the other hand, the
lady was pretty drunk that night, wasn't she?
There have been a lot of interesting people testifying here are and with
varying opinions. On a local note, the politics are strange also. Chris
Conrad is a rather controversial fired ex-district attorney; we all know Cyril
Wecht is always controversial and his involvement this case was as a private
citizen, prior to his being elected again as County coroner.
My disappointment is that there seem to be few details that really help one to
form an opinion as to the husband's guilt.
PattyC<----- VERY tired of not being able to type normally!
"Feminism is the radical notion that women are people."
Teresa
"PattyC4303" wrote:
> Hey Teresa,
>
> Thanks for posting all the stories on this.
Teresa:
You're welcome, PattyC! It's good to see you again.
PattyC:
> Due to my handicapped typing I
> haven't had the energy to try and post what I think is an interesting
murder
> trial in my city, Pittsburgh.
Teresa:
So did you type this rather long reply via a voice recognition program
or did you type it all out one-handedly?
PattyC:
> The husband wasn't charged until sometime after
> the wife's death. If I recall correctly, the new in laws posted bail for
him
> when he was arrested. I guess they believe in him.
>
> I'm curious as to whether you think this guy is guilty of killing his
wife?
> I'm not even sure why, but I do think he is guilty. On the other hand,
the
> lady was pretty drunk that night, wasn't she?
Teresa:
Yes, I do think the husband had something to do with her death.
He probably didn't do it intentionally, but I'll bet they got into a
shoving match and she ended up going over the rail because of it.
PattyC:
> There have been a lot of interesting people testifying here are and with
> varying opinions. On a local note, the politics are strange also. Chris
> Conrad is a rather controversial fired ex-district attorney; we all know
Cyril
> Wecht is always controversial and his involvement this case was as a
private
> citizen, prior to his being elected again as County coroner.
Teresa:
See there, it's good to hear a local tell their impressions of the parties
involved. I hadn't realized that the ex-DA was controversial, much less
fired.
PattyC:
> My disappointment is that there seem to be few details that really help
one to
> form an opinion as to the husband's guilt.
Teresa:
I agree. Because the victim's parents are from Colorado, there was a very
long, comprehensive article written about this case, oh about a year ago I
think. But, now that I'm trying to find it on the web (where I came across
it
the first time) I can't seem to find it! Ever since I read that article
I've had
my eyes peeled for news of the trial. The article sure led me to believe
that
a conviction would surely be the result for the husband. So, now that the
trial has started and I'm reading the testimony as reported in the papers,
there
doesn't seem to be enough evidence to convict beyond a reasonable doubt.
I wish I could find that article!
> PattyC<----- VERY tired of not being able to type normally!
Teresa:
So how much longer before the cast is off?
Maggie
>> My disappointment is that there seem to be few details that really help
>one to
>> form an opinion as to the husband's guilt.
>
>
>I agree. Because the victim's parents are from Colorado, there was a very
>long, comprehensive article written about this case, oh about a year ago
>I
>think. But, now that I'm trying to find it on the web (where I came across
>it
>the first time) I can't seem to find it! Ever since I read that article
>I've had
>my eyes peeled for news of the trial. The article sure led me to believe
>that
>a conviction would surely be the result for the husband. So, now that the
>trial has started and I'm reading the testimony as reported in the papers,
>there
>doesn't seem to be enough evidence to convict beyond a reasonable doubt.
>I wish I could find that article!
***I feel the same way that Pattyc does about this case. It's hard for me to
get interested because we will never know for sure what happened (I'm assuming
that if there was going to be a confession it would have happened by now). I
can't imagine feeling very good about any verdict so I'm not paying too much
attention. The husband may well have done it but, based on what's been
published, the state will never be able to prove it.
Maggie
"If you want to look young and thin, hang around with old fat people."--Jim
Eason
Teresa
I'm posting this article from Friday's paper.
Teresa
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Witherell wasn't struck before fall, second pathologist says
PITTSBURGH -- For the second day in a row, a forensic pathologist testified
that Michelle Witherell wasn't hit on the head before she died from a
33-foot fall from her apartment balcony.
Dr. Mary Case of St. Louis testified Thursday for defense attorneys in the
homicide trial of Jeremy Witherell, 31.
Witherell is on trial for the death of his wife, Michelle Witherell. She
died on Dec. 20, 1992, after falling from the balcony of their apartment in
a Pittsburgh suburb. The couple moved to Pennsylvania from Parker only
months before her death.
Case's testimony is important because it conflicted with earlier prosecution
testimony from Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril H. Wecht.
Wecht believes Michelle Witherell was hit with a blunt instrument, which
fractured the left side of her head before the fall.
But Case, a specialist in head injuries, said there is no evidence of an
assault on Michelle Witherell, 24, before she fell. Jeremy Witherell has
told police that Michelle, who was intoxicated, fell or jumped from the
balcony.
Case argued that head injuries from falls don't always cause corresponding
injuries on the other side of the brain, as Wecht and other prosecution
witnesses have argued.
Case said that when a person has crushing head injuries from falls of more
than 15 to 20 feet, the person doesn't show corresponding injuries on the
opposite side of the brain.
Dr. Werner U. Spitz, a forensic pathologist who was called as a defense
expert on Wednesday, agreed with Case.
Wecht had said the absence of such injuries led him to believe Michelle
Witherell received a head fracture before she fell. He argued that the
fracture to the left side of the head would have caused corresponding
injuries to the right side of the brain if it had happened in a fall.
Case said Michelle Witherell's brain was intact despite skull fractures.
Borkowski noted that Case failed to mention the presence of a broken jaw,
which she apologized for leaving out of her report.
January 19, 2001
PattyC4303
<ctf...@homesweethome.com> writes:
When I type more than a couple words I am using the voice recognition software.
But correcting frequently with my left hand. I've been writing my reports for
work that way, and my God is it wearing me out! On the other hand, I must say,
the software works relatively well.
By the way, as to Chris Conrad and his being fired, none of that probably
relates this case. His firing was pretty much a political thing, a year or so
ago.
As to the murder, or death, lets say, to be fair...I wouldn't be surprised if
the two, considering their previously rather violent relationship, were into
pushing and shoving and he killed her more or less by accident. That is, one
major shove too many...
(OT---I had surgery in January 3rd, and found out a week later that I had to
keep a long-arm cast on for three additional weeks. Which means I can't use my
right arm all, for driving, typing, writing, etc. I move out of this cast into
a short-term cast in another 10 days. Hopefully I'll be able to drive and at
least type a bit with that. It's been interesting reading atc and mostly
holding my thoughts back due to this vocational handicap!)
PattyC
GMSpider
terrible.
PRAY, v.
To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single
petitioner confessedly unworthy.
The Devil's Dictionary