Mark Twitchell told a young woman he was corresponding with online that he had “crossed the line” the day he is alleged to have killed Johnny Altinger and said he liked it.
Renee Waring, who never met Twitchell in person, testified via video link this morning from Cleveland, Ohio.
She said she began corresponding with a Facebook account in the name of Dexter Morgan in Sept. 2008. Dexter Morgan is the lead character in the television series Dexter, which is about a serial killer who also works as a forensics expert.
Waring said that, as a fan of Dexter she initially thought the account might actually be connected to the show somehow.
She said she eventually determined the man behind the account was Twitchell, after he admitted as much in a message by sending her his first name and a link to the website for his production company.
Twitchell's lawyer Charles Davidson also told the court his client was prepared to admit that he was the person behind the Dexter Morgan account.
After the two had sent dozens of messages back and forth in early October, there was a pause and Twitchell re-kindled the conversation on Oct. 14.
He told Waring he had a busy weekend, but couldn't get into all the details.
“I also had something else keeping me busy, but I am really concerned about telling anyone because of the implications,” he wrote. “Suffice it to say I crossed the line on Friday … and I liked it.”
Twitchell is charged with murdering Altinger on that Friday, Oct. 10, 2008.
Throughout a string of dozens of messages, the pair talked about Twitchell's movie making and his hobby of creating elaborate Halloween costumes.
They also talked about their “dark fantasies.”
Crown prosecutor Lawrence Van Dyke read some of the messages out loud to Waring and the jury. In one, Waring tells Twitchell about her anger and feelings toward her ex-husband's new wife and how she sometimes feels like killing her.
After the woman relayed an elaborate plot to do so, Twitchell wrote back pointing out the flaws in her plan, the amount of forensic evidence she would leave behind and the way police would suspect her almost automatically because she was so close to the victim.
He suggested stunning the victim and then killing her in a specially prepared room before dumping the body in a lake.
Waring wrote back she doubted she could do it and said the “fantasies” were just that, not real plans.
Towards the end of the message thread on Oct. 27, after his interview with police and just days before his arrest, Twitchell raises the possibility of getting together in person with Waring and going on a vacation somewhere tropical.
“”If I had a boat we could take to the [Dominican Republic] to escape our lives, would you go on vacation with me? I realize how completely nonsensical that is. I was just wondering.”
The trial resumes Thursday. The Crown is expecting to rest its case early next week.
