HAMILTON — When police asked Martin Delores Rivera-Carrillo why he and his van were covered with blood, he told them he'd just killed a baby cow.

        But Detective Steve Rogers noticed several strands of medium-length brown hair dangling from a loop at the top of the man's right work boot. “I said, "That doesn't look like cow hair to me. If that's human hair you have a problem,'” Detective Rogers said. “He smiled, and he said, "I have a problem.'”

        The Hamilton detective on Monday told a jury that exchange took place July 15 in the police department's booking area, describing Mr. Rivera-Carrillo as calm and relaxed while police questioned him.

        Testifying in Mr. Rivera-Carrillo's murder trial in Butler County Common Pleas Court, , Detective Rogers also described how police collected evidence in the case of Tracey Jean Roark, 38, who bled to death after being stabbed more than 40 times.

        A jury of three women and nine men began their work by inspecting Mr. Rivera-Carrillo's 1987 GMC Safari van in the courthouse garage.

        Police then described evidence that appears to link Ms. Roark's body to the van.

        The jury will resume hear ing testimony today; the trial is expected to last three to four days.

        Officer Paul Davis, who initially spotted Mr. Rivera-Carrillo's bloody van driving past him, also noted that some purple wildflowers were stuck on the vehicle's exterior.

        So police concentrated their search on areas where they had seen such flowers growing — and that led to the field where Ms. Roark's body had been partially hid den beneath a trash bin.

        A leather sandal was found with her body; a matching leather sandal was found inside Mr. Rivera-Carrillo's van.

        Likewise, lengths of speaker wire were found with the body and in the vehicle.

        Police also seized women's underwear and a carpenter's knife, which includes a razor blade, from the van.

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