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By FOSS FARRAR and JAMES JORDAN
Traveler Staff Writers

Prosecution witnesses this afternoon linked Justin Thurber to the black sports car owned by Jodi Sanderholm, the 19-year-old Cowley College student found dead in early January.

Several witnesses said they either noticed Sanderholm's black Dodge Stratus, or saw Thurber with the car, the day of Sanderholm's disappearance, Jan. 5.

The most detailed testimony came from Becky Lynn David. She said she noticed a car parked near a driveway east of the bypass and U.S. 166 (Kansas Avenue).

She slowed down to take a closer look and noticed a person squatting near the trunk of the car, said David, who was interviewed by Kansas Attorney General Paul Morrison.

He then went into an upright position and glared at her, she testified, with a demeanor that was "very nasty and angry." She said she was less than 10 feet from the person.

The she identified the person as Thurber. She also said that the saw the front tag of the car said "Jodi."

David said she saw, in her rearview mirror, the person slam the driver's side door and then run over to the passenger's side.

Defense attorney Tim Frieden asked about David's colorblindness. She said she has problems seeing red and yellow. Frieden asked whether she could distinguish black from red. David said it depended on how dark the red was.

Another witness, Melinda Schritter, of Oklahoma, said she saw Thurber driving a black car down a narrow dirt road near Silverdale, in eastern Cowley County.

She said the car was going fast, about 35 miles per hour, and that it was covered in mud.

Thurber is charged with premeditated murder, rape, kidnapping and sodomy and could face the death penalty. He has not entered a plea. Sanderholm's body was found in southeastern Cowley County and her car was pulled out of the Cowley State Fishing Lake after she disappeared Jan. 5.

Witnesses put Thurber and Sanderholm near lake

Testimony focused on where Jodi Sanderholm was on the day of her death on Jan. 5 of this year as the preliminary hearing began at the Cowley County Courthouse in Winfield.

Thurber anxiously looked around the courtroom after he was escorted in and sat at the table with his attorneys. He spoke with them briefly, but from that time on looked straight ahead and showed little emotion.

His attorneys asked that handcuffs be removed, which the judge granted.

Thurber did not looked back at the audience behind him.

Kevin Pike, who works for his father's company, Pike Construction in Arkansas City, testified that he saw Sanderholm and Thurber together the afternoon of Jan. 5.

He had been hauling rock from a quarry near Cedar Vale back to Arkansas City. On the afternoon of Jan. 5 he said he made two trips back and forth.

He was hauling rocks in a large tractor trailer type truck.

He said a black car followed him for two or three miles near the Cowley Fishing Lake and passed him near the lake. He said the car stopped quickly to turn into the lake and that he had to hit is brakes very hard to avoid hitting them with his truck That was at about 2 p.m.

He saw two people in the car. At the time he did not know Thurber or Sanderholm, but he said he was sure it was them.

He recognized Thurber as the driver and saw Sanderholm sitting in the front seat beside him.

He said he thought it looked like the Sanderholm's daughter and later realized it was definitely her.

"When they went by she looked up at me," he said.

He saw them through the sunroof, and through the tinted windows of the car.

After getting loaded with rocks in Cedar Vale, he returned to Arkansas City. He was driving west on U.S. Highway 166 and again saw the black car going at a high rate of speed headed east. At that time he wasn't sure how many people were in the car, but said it looked like the same person who had stopped in front of him earlier.

Pike said he got a real good look at the both of them because he had to go to a great effort to get the truck stopped to avoid hitting them, He then drove by slowly because it takes a large truck a long time to gather speed.

Bobbi Giltner of Newkirk said she was driving home from work in Arkansas City on the evening of Jan. 5. She takes Cowley 1 south toward Newkirk and goes through Silverdale.

She said just after she crossed the Oklahoma State line she saw a black car sitting by the side of the road near the Kaw Wildlife area.

She also saw a man standing in some weeds 20 or 30 feet off the road. She said he was bent over and appeared to either be looking at something or looking for something.

She said she could not recognize the person or the car. She said the car looked like the car Jodi Sanderholm owned.

Danceline practice

Lori Legleiter, a Cowley College danceline member, testified that she saw Thurber sitting in a blue Cadillac in the parking lot of W.S. Scott Auditorium as she entered the building for practice that morning. She did not notice him or his car when she and Jodi left practice.

It was later that day, Jan. 5, according to police, that Thurber kidnapped Jodi Sanderholm

Another Cowley student, Elizabeth Rush, 19, said she noticed the car Thursday and Friday near the auditorium.

Legleiter also testified that the blue Cadillac followed her after work the Tuesday before Sanderholm disappeared.

Friday morning, on the day of Jodi's disappearance, she said she saw Thurber in his blue Cadillac in the parking lot across from the W.S. Scott Auditorium where the danceline practices.

She said at that moment she made the connection and realized it was the same person who had been following her when she saw the car go slowly past her and saw the driver looking at her.

She said she did not know Thurber, but had met him a few years ago when she was with her brother who is the same age as Thurber.

She told some other danceline members about the car. She added that she remembered Jodi saying she had forgotten to bring the grapes and water to practice, that she had intended to bring.

After practice she did not see the Cadillac again. Her car was parked behind Jodi's and they left about the same time. She saw Jodi drive north from Cowley College on First Street.

Under cross examination, she said she was sure it was Thurber she saw when she went into practice.

"We made eye contact. He has distinct facial characteristics. High cheek bones," she said.

She had planned to meet with Jodi later at a friend's house, which was Morgan Green. Jodi was going to fix Green's hair before a performance that night. She was supposed to be at Green's house at 12:45 but never showed up.

Legleiter said it was very unusual for Jodi to not show up.

"If she was going to be late, she would always call," she said.

Rush, another danceline member, said she saw Thurber in his car before practice on both Thursday and Friday.

At the intersection of Central and First Streets, she was waiting at an intersection when Thurber drove by. She said he made an extra effort to look at her as he drove through the intersection, which did seem unusual to her.

She pointed to Thurber at the defense table when asked to identify who it was she saw that day.

She said on the day Jodi disappeared, she saw Thurber sitting in a parking lot nearby before practice. She noticed his car because it was sitting facing outward at the entrance, looking like he was going to leave that way.

Zach Ellwell said he was working out at the Cleveland Wellness Center, across the street from the auditorium. He said he often works out there and notices the danceline members come and go from the building.

Looking out the window during his workout, he said he noticed a blue Cadillac in the parking lot beside the auditorium driving around very slowly. It was the slowness of the car that got his attention and he wondered what it was doing.

He said he could not see who was driving the car.

He said he knew of Thurber but did not know him personally.

He saw several vehicles leave the building that he believed to be the dancers leaving. He saw the car Jodi was driving, a black Dodge Stratus, headed north on First Street. He said a short time later he saw the blue Cadillac going the same direction.

Kari Morris, who said she has been friends with Jodi since they were in middle school, said she saw Jodi the day she disappeared.

She was on "C" Avenue waiting to turn onto Kansas Avenue. She saw Jodi's car go by with a male person driving and Jodi in the passenger seat at around 12:30 p.m.

She could not see who was driving, but was certain that it was not Jodi's boyfriend, Colby.

She tried to call Jodi, which she said was what she would normally do if she saw Jodi drive by.

The phone rang but there was no answer.

She said it was also very unusual that Jodi or the driver of the car did not wave back at her.

Morgan Green, who was a high school senior at the time, said she had danced with Jodi for years.

She had talked with Jodi the night before and was expecting Jodi to come by her house and help fix her hair.

She went to meet Lori Legleiter at 12:15 and they were back at Green's house by 12:20. Jodi never arrived and did not answer calls to her cell phone, Green said.

Mailman John Gage said he was substituting for the regular mail carrier and delivered mail to the area where the Sanderholms live. He lives nearby, and said he had delivered mail and was at his own house by 11:40 that day. He estimated he had delivered mail at their box just before 11:30 . He said he did not notice anything unusual there.

Above: Justin Thurber