Thursday, December 09, 1999
Sister tells of burying body parts
Brother is accused in '98 murder
BY STEVE KEMME
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON — Melissa Lawson Botts recalled in court Wednesday how her mother enlisted her help in June 1998 with a gruesome task.
Mrs. Botts said that after talking with her brother, James Lee Lawson, Ellen Peck walked over to her and said: “I need your help.
Ms. Peck opened the trunk of her car, revealing trash bags that contained the dismembered body parts of 33-year-old Cheryl Ann Durkin, Mrs. Botts said.
Ms. Peck began putting the trash bags in a cooler, she said.
“She left the body parts that didn't fit in the cooler in the trunk,” Mrs. Botts said.
A Butler County Common Pleas jury listened to Mrs. Botts' testimony on the third day of the murder trial of Mr. Lawson, 30, of Middletown.
Mr. Lawson is accused of killing Ms. Durkin, of Madison Township, on Feb. 24, 1998, then dismembering her body and coaxing his mother and his sister to get rid of the body parts.
He already has pleaded no contest to gross abuse of a corpse and obstructing justice. Judge Patricia Oney found him guilty of those charges.
Ms. Peck is serving a prison sentence for her role in the burial of the body parts. Mrs. Botts is awaiting sentencing for tampering with evidence.
Mrs. Botts said that she and her mother buried some body parts in June of last year in woods in Preble County and the rest in woods near Brookville Lake in Indiana.
Two months earlier, Ms. Durkin's torso had been found floating in the Great Miami River in Hamilton.
Mrs. Botts said that after initially lying to police, she told them about the body parts in August 1998. Police recovered the buried body parts.
Mrs. Botts said that sometime during 1998, she overheard Mr. Lawson tell their mother that he threw his circular power saw into the trash. It had been used to dismember Ms. Durkin's body.
Forensic anthropologist Dr. Steven Symes testified that his examination of some of Ms. Durkin's bones indicated that they had been cut by a circular power saw.
He said he concluded from holes and depressions in Ms. Durkin's skull that the left side of her head had been struck with a blunt object two to four times.
He could not say what weapon had been used.
Teri Davis, who described herself as a close friend of Ms. Durkin's, said she and Ms. Durkin had worked the Central Avenue area of Middletown as prostitutes in 1997 and 1998. Both were drug addicts, she said.
Mrs. Davis, who said she no longer uses drugs or works as a prostitute, testified that Mr. Lawson had been her customer as well as Ms. Durkin's customer. She said Mr. Lawson paid her about 12 times to have sex at his house.
“I saw him pick up Cheryl on Central Avenue several times,” Mrs. Davis said.
She said she last saw Ms. Durkin in early February 1998, when Ms. Durkin came to visit her at a drug rehabilitation center in Hamilton.
Mrs. Davis said that during the winter, Ms. Durkin always wore a long black trench coat.
Heather Foltz, who had been a baby sitter for Mr. Lawson's three children, said she saw Ms. Durkin briefly on two occasions at Mr. Lawson's house. She was wearing a long black trench coat.
She said she saw Mr. Lawson in June 1998, with a long black trench coat that looked like the same one Ms. Durkin wore.
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