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Motive still a mystery in Worthington murder
Case likely to hinge on DNA evidence
By Michael Iacuessa
BANNER CORRESPONDENT
Despite past statements made by District Attorney Michael O'Keefe suggesting authorities had information regarding a motive, an arrest report released last week reveals little in the way of why Christopher McCowen may have gone to Christa Worthington's home to rape and murder her.
Outside of his DNA being found on her body, the only contact between the two mentioned in the report is the former trash man's own account to police that Worthington occasionally waved at him when he went to collect her garbage. McCowen said he did not know her and had never been in her house.
When asked if he had ever seen anyone else at the house, he said only a small girl, which would have been Worthington's two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Ava.
The report, the first official written account of the murder, was released only after Judge W. James O'Neill granted a motion filed by The Boston Globe to unseal it. Authorities had taken the unusual step of impounding the entire court docket and information regarding past restraining orders taken out against McCowen.
While O'Keefe and Truro Police Chief John Thomas have said that authorities possessed evidence connecting McCowen to the crime scene in addition to his DNA, no such evidence is included in the report. Arrest reports generally maximize the police case for apprehending a suspect but the 11 written pages of State Police Det. Christopher Mason's report, while outlining a past history of domestic violence, offer no insight why McCowen may have gone to Worthington's house on his day off.
The main case against McCowen appears to be the DNA match revealing he had sex with Worthington and that Worthington was found naked from the waist down, indicating the sex likely occurred at the scene of the murder. According to Joanne Sgueglia, a forensic biologist at the state police crime lab, McCowen's DNA, found in semen and on both of Worthington's breasts, would have washed off her body if she had bathed since the contact.
Although defense attorney Francis O'Boy told the Banner Monday that it is too early to determine what direction the case would lead, not surprisingly he has taken several steps to indicate the defense strategy will focus on attacking the DNA evidence.
O'Boy has brought in Larry Tipton, a Boston attorney who is an expert in DNA cases, as co-counsel. In a discovery motion, he has also asked the state to detail every step of the DNA gathering process.
"It will be a factor," O'Boy admitted. "But at this stage of the case it is premature to say who I am going to call as a witness."
The motion was one reason McCowen's next court date was moved to May 17. He had been scheduled to appear in Orleans District Court last Friday for a pretrial hearing.
Since McCowen's arrest, many local residents had expressed alarm at the seemingly random aspect of the murder. Others have wondered why a murderer would voluntarily give a DNA sample when asked by police. According to Mason, McCowen said it wasn't him when told Worthington had sex shortly before being murdered and that investigators had developed a DNA sample from the semen.
Those aspects of the crime remain unclear but the court records may offer insight on another question. Why would a suspect, after giving a DNA sample, wait around for the day when a dozen state police officers would eventually surround his home?
If McCowen had any inkling his DNA would match that found at the Worthington crime scene, his legal troubles over the past year may have overshadowed his ability to do much about it.
O'Keefe blamed McCowen's frequent moving as a reason for why nearly two years passed between the time he was first interviewed, and agreed to give a DNA sample, and the time that sample was actually taken.
But after that date, the criminal justice system kept close tabs on McCowen for other reasons.
When the suspect gave a DNA sample on March 18, 2004, he was on probation for threatening to kill a girlfriend during a verbal argument and had been ordered to attend anger counseling. Six months later he was charged with assaulting and strangling another girlfriend.
Although he was not convicted on the latter charge until March of this year, receiving a six-month suspended sentence, McCowen was required to appear in court as the case processed as well as continue to comply with the terms of his probation in the previous case.
The court documents also reveal that since 1998, McCowen had five restraining orders in all filed against him by five different women.
While the details of the cases are not significantly different than those that come up in Orleans and Barnstable courts on a weekly basis, in retrospect, they give prosecutors ammunition in portraying McCowen as someone who has a violent temper.
Incidents alleged in three of the restraining orders were preceded by a verbal argument. In connection with one filed on May 6, 1999, McCowen was subsequently charged and admitted sufficient facts to hitting a girlfriend with a car door during an argument over belongings in the woman's home.
In the case resolved in March, he physically attacked the victim after she prevented him from leaving her apartment without paying rent. He also pulled a phone chord from the wall when she attempted to dial 911.
On Dec. 9, 1998, a girlfriend was granted a restraining order after stating she was in fear of him and alleging that he had been hostile toward her.
The other restraining order was not filed by a girlfriend but a mother of a 15-year-old who claimed McCowen, at age 26 in 1999, had sex with her daughter.
While demonstrating he had trouble with relationships, the restraining orders also suggest he had no trouble finding new ones, some of them shared living situations lasting several months or longer. And there is no evidence to suggest he violated any of the restraining orders.
The arrest report also turned up information about the crime not previously confirmed as well as echoing reports already given.
Former boyfriend Tim Arnold found Worthington's body in the victim's kitchen on Jan. 6, 2002. His father had driven him to the home after suggesting, while on their way to Wellfleet, that his son return a flashlight he had borrowed from her the previous week. Arnold told police he and Worthington earlier in the week had made tentative plans to have dinner the night before but he had not heard back from her.
The two men took turns searching the house for a phone to call 911 but did not find one. While they may have been looking specifically for a wireless phone that usually hung on the kitchen wall, they failed to spot Worthington's cell phone on the kitchen table which chillingly revealed the number 9 had been dialed.
Arnold ran back to his father's home on Old County Road to call 911 while his father remained outside the home with Ava, whom Tim Arnold found beside the body.
The telephone, a cordless Panasonic, has never been found. Also missing were Worthington's credit cards and identification. No wallet or purse was found in the house or her car. Also absent were "clothing items that may have been worn on the victim's lower body half."
Throughout the investigation, police never indicated they believed theft was a motive.
Nor did authorities mention rape, often inferring they were looking for the person who had consensual sex, or at the very least a relationship, with the victim.
However, evidence revealed in the police report indicates both forced entry into the home and that rape was suspected from the onset.
The outside door leading into the kitchen appeared to have been forced inward, the doorjamb and lock faceplate damaged. The dead bolt was in the locked position.
However, there are also signs a scuffle might have occurred outdoors. Two wool socks, Worthington's house and car keys, her eyeglasses and a barrette were found in the driveway near her car. Several pieces of grass also were found in her hair.
Three paramedics reported Worthington's right leg was propped up at an unusual angle against a bookshelf although it was moved prior to the arrival of investigators.
Worthington was wearing a black thermal shirt and black sweatshirt, with another brown sweatshirt only on her left arm and shoulder.
The medical examiner, James Weiner, reported presence of blunt head trauma as well as abrasions and contusions on several parts of her body. The cause of death was a stab wound to the chest. The knife has not been found.
The murderer may have tried to clean up the scene as blood was present on a broom and a hand towel. However, police also believe Ava attempted to clean up her mother as well.
Swabs taken from Worthington's body revealed semen and presence of DNA from three individuals. Ava and Worthington herself were determined to be the other two.
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