White Trash Bastard kept mummify dismembered body of woman he murdered in trunk for years
GuessWho
The mummified remains of a woman found stuffed into a trunk in a house near
the French Quarter after Hurricane Katrina has led to the murder trial of
the woman's former boyfriend.
Dana Marie Surette Pastori, called "Polly" by her friends, worked at a
Bourbon Street eatery until she disappeared in July 2002.
She was leaving New Orleans, one friend remembered hearing her say.
John Morgan delivered groceries at deli where girlfriend worked
But her body stayed in the city, and in her killer's makeshift grave.
What remained of Pastori, 39, was found Oct. 21, 2005, inside a cheap
particle-board trunk that her boyfriend John Morgan kept for years, hauling
it from apartment to apartment, until he left New Orleans in the wake of
Hurricane Katrina, a jury was told Tuesday at Morgan's trial in Criminal
District Court.
Pastori was strangled, and then dismembered at the knees and abdomen, before
being stuffed into the trunk, the coroner's office determined in 2005,
months after Katrina struck.
Morgan, 42, is charged with second-degree murder of Pastori, his one-time
girlfriend who worked at the Quartermaster Deli while Morgan made deliveries
for the Bourbon Street hot spot. Dating to chaotic days after the hurricane,
the criminal case had received little public notice before this week.
"I asked him, John, where is Dana? I haven't seen her, " his former
landlord, Maria Barranco, testified Tuesday. "That's when he told me she was
in an accident."
Pastori was killed at Morgan's former home in the French Quarter at 735
Ursulines St., and then carted to 939 Elysian Fields Ave. when Morgan moved
there, prosecutors said.
The 6-foot-3-inch Morgan had neatly trimmed hair and wore a crisp suit for
his trial, taking notes at the defense table as Assistant District Attorneys
Margaret Parker and Francesca Bridges sat surrounded by posterboard-sized
photographs of the alleged crime scenes, along with a framed picture of
Pastori.
Barranco said she followed Morgan as he moved into a two-story house near
the Phoenix bar in November 2004. He was leaving Barranco's French Quarter
property on Ursulines for an apartment just a five-minute drive away on
Elysian Fields, with the trunk in tow.
"Yeah, I smelled an odor, " she testified, recalling the trunk.
Morgan blamed the smell on a rat that he said had died in the trunk, she
said.
Remnants of Pastori's remains were found by police in the Ursulines
apartment in 2005, jurors were told.
"It was disgusting; it smelled terrible and you can still smell that stuff
in my apartment, " Barranco said. "How could you live with something like
that?"
In early 2008, New Orleans police caught up with Morgan in Charlotte, N.C.,
where he was booked with murder and sent to jail in New Orleans, facing a $1
million bond requirement.
Prosecutors have ghastly evidence -- starting with the trunk that reeked
inside Judge Julian Parker's courtroom, prompting him to call in janitors to
spray sanitizer and sweep the new carpeting -- and a circumstantial case
built by Morgan's former landlords.
But Morgan's public defenders, Don Donnelly and Suzanne Levert, question how
the death can be pinned on Morgan. They emphasized that no one actually
witnessed the murder.
Katrina's damage led to the discovery of Pastori's remains.
After Katrina, owners of the Elysian Fields house decided they wanted to
move into the building where Morgan had lived with then-girlfriend Tracey
Greer, before Morgan and Greer left the city with their $2,000 relief checks
from FEMA. Greer had told the owners - -- her parents - -- that the couple
weren't coming back. She told them to get rid of stuff remaining in the
apartment, according to police.
They broke the trunk's lock and opened it, curious as to what could possibly
cause the nauseating smell that Morgan had blamed on a dead rodent.
Moving the trunk to the neutral ground, they flagged down a National
Guardsman patrolling the storm-scarred neighborhood, who summoned police.
In the midst of destruction left by floodwaters, New Orleans police
Detective Greg Hamilton was called in to investigate the mummified remains.
Hamilton testified that it didn't take long for the FBI to identify the
victim as Pastori, from a tooth recovered from the remains.
Pastori's parents hadn't heard from her since 2002. The national lists
compiled after Katrina of missing persons included her name.
Her passport, identification cards, divorce records and other personal
documents were found in the Elysian Fields apartment. Pastori was born in
Corpus Christi, Texas, and had married years ago in Santa Barbara, Calif.
The dead woman's personal records were stacked on a table in the courtroom
Tuesday.
The trial continues today. Morgan faces a mandatory sentence of life in
prison if the jury finds him guilty.