Dana WilkesOpening statements in a grisly murder trial are set to begin this morning after an all-day jury selection on Monday.
The sequestered 14 jurors will hear and see details of a macabre Chattanooga murder in which the victim was decapitated, her hands and part of her forearm severed and left lying near a local creek bed near 3700 Youngstown Road.
Tony Bigoms, 54, faces charges of first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse in the November 2012 slaying of Dana Wilkes, 48.
Prosecutors Lance Pope and Cameron Williams face Assistant District Public Defenders Steve Brown and Jane Buffaloe in a case that Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Barry Steelman told the jury will extend into the weekend and likely next week.
Wilkes had been missing since Nov. 10, 2012, when she failed to show up for work at Dialysis Clinic Inc. on East Third Street. Her Jeep Cherokee was found on Wilcox Boulevard with a blood spatter in it shortly afterward.