Associated Press, 04/14/98 02:30
BRENTWOOD, N.H. (AP) - Seth Bader's 15-year-old adopted son said he and his
father drove to Waterboro, Maine, to dig a grave for his adopted mother days
before she was murdered.
Joseph Bader also told jurors Monday about the bloody scene that greeted him in
the kitchen of Seth Bader's Stratham home Aug. 24, 1996.
His adoptive mother, Vicki Bader, was lying on the floor, bleeding from a
gunshot wound to the head, the state's star witness testified.
He put a garbage bag over her, then he and Sandro Stuto cleaned up the blood
with paper towels and spray cleanser, he said.
Seth Bader, Joseph and Stuto then carried Vicki Bader's body down the front
steps and loaded it into Seth Bader's Jeep Cherokee, the teen-ager said.
``We carried her out the front steps and rested there, because she was getting
heavy,'' he said.
As Vicki Bader's body lay in a plastic mat on the floor of the Cherokee,
Bader's fiancee, Mary Jean Martin, returned to the house with Joseph's
8-year-old brother, Matthew, Joseph said. He said Martin unloaded some
groceries and went out shopping again with Matthew and the boys' 3-year-old
brother, Sam.
Prosecutors say Seth Bader, 38, murdered Vicki shortly after she dropped off
Sam for a visit. The Baders were battling for custody of the boy, their only
biological child.
Martin, 34, of Cambridge, Mass., and Stuto, 22, of Everett, Mass., also were
indicted for murder conspiracy. The charge against Martin was dismissed last
week, although it could be reinstated, and Stuto is expected to testify against
Bader as part of a plea agreement.
Joseph Bader went to police a year ago, told them about Vicki Bader's murder
and took them to her grave in woods in Waterboro, Maine, prosecutors say. He
admitted helping lure Vicki Bader into his father's house and digging the
grave.
Joseph testified Monday that he did not witness the shooting. But he said he
saw Seth Bader carry his rifle and a shotgun for Stuto downstairs beforehand,
then saw his father carry the rifle barrel and a spent bullet casing upstairs
afterward.
When Vicki Bader arrived at the house, Joseph took Sam out of his car seat and
played with him outside until Stuto called him, he said. Then he took Sam up to
his room and put the toddler on the bed before going downstairs and seeing the
body, he said.
``She was on the floor not moving. She was bleeding from her head,'' he said.
Joseph, who has not been charged, will face tough cross-examination from
Bader's lawyers, who claim that Joseph and Martin had an affair, killed Vicki
Bader and framed their client.
Joseph has admitted to writing hate letters to Vicki Bader, killing her pet
parakeets and shooting out her windows in the months before her death,
according to court records.
Joseph said Seth Bader made him write the letters, in which Joseph said Vicki
Bader was a ``psycho'' and he wished her dead. Prosecutors today continued
questioning the boy, who turns 16 next month, about the letters.
When asked to describe his relationship with Vicki Bader, Joseph said she was
like a mother to him when the Baders adopted him and Matthew in 1993. Joseph
was 9, Matthew 4. They are distant cousins of Seth Bader.
``She gave me hugs, read me stories and tucked me in at night,'' he said.
Seth Bader mostly ignored him, he said.
``It was like people who happen to live in the same house together, but never
talk to one another,'' he testified. ``The only thing he did was show me how to
shoot guns in the basement. He was always mean to me and my brother.''
Joseph said Seth Bader often complained about giving money to his ex-wife. He
said he and his brother stayed with their adoptive father after the divorce
because they were afraid Vicki Bader, who had tried several times to commit
suicide, would not be able to care for them. He said Seth Bader also frightened
him by telling him Vicki Bader had tried to poison Sam during one of her
suicide attempts.
Joseph originally was scheduled to take the stand a week ago, but the judge
delayed his testimony with no explanation. Later last week, Bader's lawyers
told Judge Walter Murphy that Joseph's caretaker reported he had been cruising
the Internet, looking for information on how to kill people and make bombs.
They also said he had been accused of sexually assaulting a girl at school.
Prosecutors countered with a police report that Seth Bader had tried to locate
Joseph last year in order to ``take him out.''
------------------- In taberna mori
Ut sint vina proxima
Morientis ori.
-- The Archpoet, 12th Century