MORGANTOWN – Michael Kief took a long, methodical look inside the Chevrolet truck Kim Osborne had been driving on Mother’s Day 2024, when she was last seen alive.
It was the second day of testimony Wednesday in the trial of Joseph Nevera, of Morgantown, who was charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Osborne, his one-time girlfriend and domestic partner who also hailed from the University City, in November that year.
A big swath of the trial centered on death threats Nevera allegedly made to Osborne, who was in the process of breaking off their relationship.
Did Nevera kill Osborne and stash her body in the truck, to drive her to the site near Little Indian Creek Road, where her skeletal remains were discovered in a shallow grave seven months later?
BLUESTAR said no, Kief told jurors.
Kief, a crime scene analyst with the West Virginia State Police Forensic Laboratory, applied the blood detection agent marketed by the above name – to seats, the steering wheel, truck bed and every other surface of the vehicle.
The solution reveals telltale blood traces, even if they’ve been scrubbed and rinsed away after the commission of a crime.
However, in this particular truck, in this particular case, none was present.
“There was no blood residue,” Kief, who is also a former West Virginia state trooper, said.
BACK-AND-FORTH
Same for the cabin owned by Nevera that Osborne was readying to occupy – as part of an agreement the couple made after she sold her mobile home to move in with him.
Osborne had visited with her mother Rose for the holiday and was in the process of moving her possessions to the cabin that evening.
Investigators with the lab, Kief said, saw no signs of a struggle in the place. Her two pet dogs she doted on were there. So was the bouquet of wildflowers her friend Rusty McCreery picked for her for Mother’s Day.
The only thing missing at the cabin – was Osborne.
Both Monongalia County prosecuting attorney Gabrielle Mucciola and Nevera’s counsel Christopher Wilson focused on the alcohol-fueled, ying-and-yang of the couple’s relationship, through the bevy of witnesses called to the stand that day.
Nevera, those witnesses said, had a temper, but was still a nice guy when he wasn’t drinking.
And Osborne, while being both a devoted mom to her children and good, nurturing friend, still dealt and used drugs, those witnesses said. Cocaine, especially.
The defendant, wearing a gold plaid shirt and black slacks, listened intently while occasionally taking notes as the witnesses came forth.
Meanwhile, Kenneth “Kenny” Wade, a mutual friend who died March 21, had been interviewed by state police in the days after Osborne’s disappearance.
Jurors got to view that interview on video Wednesday.
Nevera, Wade said, had hidden a satchel Osborne used to carry important papers and other effects after she told him she was moving to the cabin.
In response, Osborne did the same for Nevera’s cellphone.
‘JOE DID IT’
Wade’s sister, Crystal McCardle, took the stand and was occasionally emotional as she recalled Osborne – with whom she became fast friends by way of her already established friendship with Nevera.
The two smoked marijuana and went thrifting, she said.
Osborne once told McCardle that Nevera had strangled her and that she lost consciousness. Later, she filed a report and Nevera was arrested, she said.
McCardle became increasingly worried as Osborne shared other accounts of domestic abuse.
She testified Osborne told her that “‘If anything happens to me and I turn up missing, Joe did it.’”
Her friend didn’t want to believe that initially, she said.
“I said, there’s no way he’d be that stupid.”
Testimony resumes at 9 a.m. Thursday in Monongalia County Circuit Court.
