Expert says blood was found in missing woman’s St. Paul home

Published 8:57 am Wednesday, September 25, 2013

ST. PAUL — Several spots found throughout a missing woman’s St. Paul home tested positive for blood using a swab test, a Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension scientist testified Tuesday at the murder trial of the woman’s husband.

But under cross-examination, Lindsey Garfield said that some of those spots were not further tested to confirm results.

Garfield testified at the trial of Jeffery Trevino, 39. Trevino is accused of killing his wife, 30-year-old Kira Steger. Steger was last seen alive on Feb. 21, and her body was found in the Mississippi River more than two months later.

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Garfield acknowledged that several spots that showed positive for blood with presumptive tests were not further tested to verify the results. She admitted that the presumptive tests are only preliminary.

“All we know is that they should’ve been tested,” defense attorney John Conard said. “It doesn’t appear that it was?”

“Those items were not tested,” Garfield said.

“As a matter of science it would be wrong to establish that we have blood here without further testing?” Conard asked.

“We have a presumptive positive and that’s as far as I can go with that,” Garfield said.

Garfield said she and another BCA scientist moved furniture in the master bedroom around based on indentations in the carpeting. They believed the box spring had been rotated and other items had been moved, she said. When they moved the box spring and items, Garfield testified, some of the stains and spots matched up.

Garfield also said that an open black suitcase with folded men’s clothing was on the bedroom floor. The closet doors were open when the BCA processed the house, she said.

In other testimony Tuesday, Steger’s grandfather, Norman Kelch, described finding a plastic bag with a bloody pillow case, pillow and sports bra near Keller Lake in Maplewood on March 16. Authorities say Steger’s DNA was found on the evidence.

Prosecutor Andrew Johnson has told the jury Trevino killed Steger in a jealous rage because she was having an affair and wanted to leave him. Conard has said the prosecution’s forensic evidence misrepresents the alleged crime scene, and that “less than a thimble” of Steger’s blood was found.