More Parker interviews played for jury

LaFAYETTE, Ga. — A few months after his wife disappeared, Sam Parker told a GBI investigator that his wife could be in Mexico.

“He believed she was in Cancun with a Mexican named Elvis,” James Harris, an agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, testified Tuesday.

A few years ago, Mrs. Parker had taken a trip to Cancun with her nieces and they met a man there named Elvis, Mr. Harris said. Investigators eventually went to Mexico to investigate Mr. Parker’s claim but didn’t turn up any evidence, he said.

Mr. Parker, a former LaFayette police officer, is charged with murdering his wife, Walker County 911 operator Theresa Parker. She was last heard from on March 21, 2007, but her body has never been found.

He has pleaded not guilty, and his trial is in its second week in Walker County Superior Court.

Mr. Harris said Mr. Parker told investigators about his theory that his wife was in Mexico after giving an interview to an Atlanta TV station.

District Attorney Leigh Patterson played the TV interview for the jury Tuesday morning and continued to question Mr. Harris about his investigation into Mrs. Parker’s disappearance.

In cross-examination, Mr. Parker’s public defender, David Dunn, tried to discredit the prosecution’s evidence and said it doesn’t prove that his client committed murder.

“The Elvis thing — this wasn’t some kind of fantasy?” Mr. Dunn said.

Mr. Dunn also referred to serial killers who he said operate in the region. Mr. Harris said he wasn’t familiar with any area serial killers but admitted he couldn’t say “to a mathematical certainty” that Mrs. Parker is dead.

Ms. Patterson questioned Mr. Harris about Mrs. Parker’s credit cards and bank accounts, and he said there has been no activity on any of the accounts since she disappeared.

Throughout the trial, Ms. Patterson has had witnesses testify that they haven’t seen or heard from Mrs. Parker since March 21, 2007.

Under cross-examination by Mr. Dunn, Mr. Harris acknowledged that the leads and searches for Mrs. Parker turned up no evidence. Mr. Harris also said Mr. Parker was cooperative when authorities searched his house numerous times, always maintaining his innocence.

In other testimony, Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless employees discussed the Parkers’ cell phone records and testified about calls made by former Walker County Sheriff’s Deputy Shane Green. Last week, Mr. Dunn questioned Mr. Green about having an affair with Mrs. Parker. Mr. Green denied it during testimony.

Sprint Nextel representative Eric Tyrell said a LaFayette cell tower indicated activity on Mrs. Parker’s cell phone between 6:01 and 6:23 a.m. on March 22, 2007. By 6:37 a.m., activity from Mrs. Parker’s cell phone was being detected by a Summerville cell tower, he said.

Assistant public defender Doug Woodruff used the cell phone records to show that Mr. Green was in the vicinity of the Parker residence about 2:30 a.m. on March 22.

Also on Tuesday, Lt. Burt Cagle with the Walker County Sheriff’s Office discussed Mr. Parker’s suicidal actions in April 2007.

Lt. Cagle said Mr. Parker was on his porch, “dressed in his Marine uniform and he had a gun between his knees,” pointing it at his chin.

He also testified about a comment Mr. Parker made when authorities came to take his missing wife’s car from the Parkers’ residence in March 2007.

“He said, ‘Go ahead and take it. I don’t need it anymore,’” Lt. Cagle said.

EXTRA TESTIMONY

* Rossville resident Tiffany Bowman testified that she and her husband found photos of Mrs. Parker and her nieces at the Walker County landfill. Assistant public defender Doug Woodruff asked the judge not to admit the evidence and said it was irrelevant, but the judge overruled his objection. Mrs. Bowman told Mr. Woodruff that she didn’t know anything about the photos or who put them there.

* When prosecutors asked witnesses about Mr. Parker’s collection of guns, some officers testified that it is not unusual for officers to have many guns or be armed at most times.