ALFRED — When Pauline Gorham first entered her daughter’s apartment in Alfred on Aug. 9, 2007, she found Kelly Gorham’s usually frisky four dogs very subdued, and the animals had relieved themselves on the floor.

There was no sign of Kelly, no sign that the apartment had been disturbed, no signs of forced entry, she said.

But Pauline Gorham had a bad feeling, she told prosecutors Monday.

“I knew then and there something bad was going on,” she said.

Kelly Gorham, a 30-year-old nursing student, had been in the habit of chatting with her mother on the telephone several times a day. But Pauline Gorham hadn’t talked to her eldest daughter since about 7 p.m. Aug. 7, though she made several attempts to contact her.

That call was their last conversation. Kelly’s body was found in Stewartstown, N.H., 180 miles away, on Labor Day weekend that year, strangled and buried in a shallow grave. Her remains were found on property owned by the father of her former fiancé.

Jason Twardus of Rochester, N.H., who had been engaged to marry Kelly Gorham before she broke off the engagement in January 2007, is charged with her murder. He was arrested Jan. 9, 2009 at his workplace in Greenland, N.H.

His trial at York County Superior Court commenced Monday after a jury of 12 and four alternates ”“ joined by Justice G. Arthur Brennan, prosecutors, defense counsel and Twardus and flanked by state security officers ”“ toured the property on Waterboro Road, where Kelly Gorham had lived in an apartment over a garage owned by John and Nancy Durfee.

Kelly Gorham and Twardus had dated, broken up and reunited. He moved into her apartment in October 2006, Assistant Attorney General William Stokes told the jury in opening statements. They’d discussed a wedding date of Aug. 4, 2007. But Kelly broke off the engagement in January, though Twardus continued to live in the apartment with her until June, when she asked him to move out. Twardus moved to his father’s home in Rochester, N.H., and continued to call Kelly, said Stokes. Occasionally they’d go hiking or bicycling.

Her body was found wrapped in a comforter. She wore no shoes and buried with her were undergarments, photographs in a Nike shoebox; the SIM card to her cell phone; and a plastic bag that contained a residue of Requip, a prescription drug for restless leg syndrome. Stokes said Twardus’ father, Brian Twardus, is prescribed that drug.

Jason Twardus’ fingerprints were found on the plastic bag and a hair from Kelly’s head was found in the trunk of his car. Stokes said Twardus’ 1997 Subaru Impreza can be seen on video surveillance tape at a convenience store in Colebrook, N.H. around noon on Aug. 8. Colebrook is about seven miles from Stewartstown.

“When all the evidence is in ”¦ the state will prove this defendant, Jason Twardus, killed Kelly Gorham,” said Stokes.

Defense attorney Daniel Lilley, however, said his client is innocent and moreover, that it isn’t clear that the murder happened in Maine. He said Kelly had been partying on the evening of Aug. 7 with her landlord, John Durfee, and Calvin Degreenia, a man whom Durfee had met in jail.

Gorham and Degreenia had began seeing each other and had an intimate relationship, both Stokes and Lilley said.

Lilley described Durfee and Degreenia as criminals and said there was no evidence to show his client was within 100 miles of the Durfee property. He alleged John Durfee was addicted to street drugs and that both Durfee and Degreenia were on probation. By contrast, he said his client has no criminal record.

Lilley said Kelly Gorham, Degreenia and Durfee cooked steaks on the evening of Aug. 7, drank vodka and martinis and Twisted Tea and that their closest neighbor heard a party next door when he arrived home from a truck-driving job at about 4:30 a.m. Aug. 8. Lilley said the man will testify he heard a female voice. Nancy Durfee was away in Connecticut at the time.

Lilley said a footprint found on the comforter in which Gorham’s body was wrapped in did not match any of his client’s shoes.

He said Degreenia was the last person to see Kelly Gorham alive.

“I say to you that the evidence suggests and circumstantial evidence will prove that Kelly Gorham was alive at 4:30 a.m. Aug. 8,” said Lilley.

Lilley said it wouldn’t be unusual that his client’s fingerprints were on photographs or her hair was found in his car.

Stokes said when police began investigating Gorham’s disappearance, they interviewed Twardus many times. His story of where he was on the days before Gorham’s disappearance and in the days after changed as the interviews went on, Stokes said. He said he’d been fishing at high tide in Biddeford on the night of Aug. 6, for example, but it wasn’t high tide at the time.

Lilley cautioned the jury to beware the “perfect murder,” where an innocent man is convicted and the real murderer is never caught.

“This case raises more questions than answers and raises more doubts than it solves,” he said.

The trial is expected to last about two weeks. It continues today at York County Superior Court.

— Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 or twells@journaltribune.com.