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Kris Zocco Murder Trial: Garage security video shows Zocco lifting large bag into trunk

Posted at 5:05 PM, Sep 28, 2018
and last updated 2018-09-28 18:05:43-04

On Friday, the jury in Kris Zocco's murder trial saw garage security video showing Zocco going to and from his car at least three times, just hours after prosecutors believe he killed Kelly Dwyer in his East Side apartment. 

"He sets the large bag down on the ground and appears to be like buying time as a car is passing by him," said Detective Eric Gulbranson, with the Milwaukee Police Department. "He gives a look over his right shoulder to make sure the car has passed, then immediately opens the trunk and grabs the bag and pushes it in."

Attorneys for Zocco objected, saying Gulbranson was speculating about what was happening in the video.

They raised doubt about all the security footage gathered from Zocco's apartment building. Saying there is some footage investigators never reviewed, as well as exits to the street that some didn't know about.

Dwyer's boss at Lululemon, Karen Holton, also testified Friday. She said Dwyer was a great employee, but did go home from work one day after "being out of it" and glassy-eyed. Something Dwyer attributed to allergy medication. 

Holton tracked down Zocco's phone number and called him, after Dwyer never showed up for work.

"I was calling anyone who may have known where she was," Holton said. "I asked when he last saw her and he said they went out and had been drinking, but she left sometime in the morning."

A voicemail message Zocco left for Holton was shared with the jury. In it, Zocco says he'll check with some of Dwyer's friends and go to places she frequented."

Holton said Zocco came to Lululemon to talk with her, before family and friends of Dwyer were gathering to post missing-person flyers.

"He told me how sorry he was for what I was going through, and at that point, I got a very strong sensation through my body that I do not trust him," Holton said. "This was after we went through phone records and saw he was the last person she contacted. At least twice he asked me if police looked at the videos of the surveillance tapes from his apartment building."

Holton said Dwyer told her that she had a "friends with benefits" casual relationship with Zocco, but that Dwyer seemed to be hopeful for more. Holton found out after Dwyer's disappearance that coworkers knew about Dwyer's kinky and adventurous sex life. 

The jury also heard from a friend of Dwyer named Royce Nash. Nash said he met Dwyer at a coffee shop on Brady Street months before her death. They became friends, "hooked up" a couple times, and he provided her with cocaine when she asked for it. Nash said whenever she came to get the cocaine, she was in Zocco's car.

"Starting a few months before her disappearance, I had asked her what was going on," Nash said. "I told her she was calling for drugs too much and that I was worried about her."

Attorneys for Zocco say speculation from Dwyer's friends and colleagues does not make up for the fact that evidence does not directly link Zocco to Dwyer's death.

The trial resumes Monday at 8:30 a.m.