Day Three of the Terry Lee McKinney Murder Trial

The murder trial of Terry Lee McKinney resumed Wednesday morning, with several people taking the stand over the course of the next three-and-a-half hours – including the Cherokee County Coroner, Dr. Jeremy Deaton and two noted specialists in the field of forensics, Torey Williams and Dr. Kathleen Enstice.

Dr. Deaton discussed the recovery of the various body parts alongside County Road 82 back in March of 2015 including a brief explanation of the process associated with turning evidence over for forensic examination. 

Dr. Enstice, State Medical Examiner, said that she had performed a forensic examination on the body parts that were sent to her in connection with the case, declaring that, through the use of DNA, it was confirmed that the remains were indeed those of Leroy “Pete” Foster.

Dr. Enstice testified that the victim had suffered two bullet wounds to the back along with a shotgun blast to the head, with the official cause of death being multiple gunshot wounds.

She also noted that because the entire body was not available for examination, it is possible that there could’ve been additional wounds.

The jurors were also presented with a video recording of the defendant being interviewed by Cherokee County Chief Investigator Josh Summerford.

That particular interview was conducted on April 13th 2015 at the Etowah County Sheriff’s Office, and essentially consisted of McKinney denying most everything that he’d said during their previous interview, occurring less than two weeks earlier on April 1st; during that interview McKinney had described sawing Foster’s lifeless body into pieces and then placing the body parts into plastic bags and afterwards, driving several miles before attempting to dispose of them alongside County Road 82.

At that time McKinney admitted to dismembering the body but steadfastly denied being the one who shot and killed Foster. 

Court will re-convene at 1:45 this afternoon.

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