MORGANTOWN – John Claburn went clammy with shock when he regarded Joe Nevera’s passenger on the evening of May 12, 2024.
It was the lifeless body of Kim Osborne, he testified on the third day of testimony in Nevera’s trial for her murder.
Osborne was splayed out on the rear passenger seat in the cab of the Silverado truck. Her head was lolling off the floorboard.
Both he and Nevera, he told jurors, had been best friends who could talk about anything under the sun.
Under the stars that day after dusk at Claburn’s camper on River Road, though, a grim haiku of confessions, and ramifications, followed.
“I killed her. You gotta help me.”
“Joe this isn’t good.”
With Claburn following behind in his Dodge truck, Nevera drove the Silverado out of the campground.
The alternator was going bad in Claburn’s vehicle, so they stopped at Nevera’s house near Little Indian Creek Road, where Claburn waited.
It was during that time, Claburn testified, that Nevera buried Osborne in the shallow grave that would be discovered seven months later by Randy Carpenter – an outdoors enthusiast who was target shooting with a bow that day when he happened upon the site.
Animals had partially uncovered the grave and Carpenter spied a rib cage, with a bra still clasped.
“I was startled,” he said.
He called 911.
Dennis Dirkmaat, then the director of the applied forensics science department at Mercyhurst University who helped at the scene, testified that Osborne was buried face down with her legs bent to accommodate the space.
Positive identification was made with the help of both DNA analysis and an upper denture stamped with Osborne’s name that was still present on the body.
The cause of death wasn’t immediately conclusive, Dirkmaat said.
Joseph Nevera turns to the back of the courtroom during the third day of testimony Thursday at his trial for the murder of his former girlfriend Kim Osborne.
Claburn, meanwhile, didn’t need anything conclusive, he testified, to know that Nevera was now in a world of trouble.
Him, too.
“I’m an accessory,” he said.
Indeed, Claburn was arrested in January and charged as an accessory after the fact for not telling police about the events of that evening when Nevera pounded on his door.
He had to stop and gather himself several times during his cross-examination by Monongalia County Prosecutor Gabrielle Mucciola. He’ll continue his testimony before Nevera’s attorney Christopher Wilson at 9 a.m. Friday in the county’s Circuit Court.
Claburn remains haunted, he said, by the vision of Osborne in that truck. He was friends with her, also.
“Kim was fun,” he said. “She was a good soul.”
Now, he said, the friends shared by him and Nevera and Osborne are questioning his soul.
“I’m not a murderer,” he said. “I didn’t help bury a body.”
“I had 50 years of living on my word,” he continued. “My honor. It’s all gone.”
Near the end of his testimony, he pointed his finger at Nevera, who was seated next to Wilson.
“You ruined my loyalty, Joe. You broke my trust.”
