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The Bangor man on trial for killing his ex-girlfriend was located in a stolen car in Massachusetts two days after the woman was found dead.
Richard Thorpe, 44, is charged with murder in the September 2024 death of Virginia Cookson. Testimony on Wednesday, the second day of Thorpe’s murder trial day, focused on how he was caught by police in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, days after Cookson’s death and how evidence was collected.
Cookson, 39, was found strangled on the floor of her Larkin Street home on Sept. 25, 2024, with an electrical cord tied around her neck. The cause of her death was strangulation and blunt force injury, according to the medical examiner’s report.
Two officers from Pittsfield, Massachusetts — Mason Pappirio and James Losak — testified Wednesday that Thorpe was arrested on the morning of Sept. 27, 2024, after leading police on a car chase.
Thorpe initially wrecked his Subaru in Pittsfield, which had a stolen Massachusetts license plate on it, before stealing an Audi and leading police on a car chase that ended with Losak putting his cruiser in front of Thorpe to stop him, he said. Thorpe’s car had a GPS route set to end in Rhode Island, Pappirio said.
Drug paraphernalia — including marijuana, needles and pipes — along with a stolen license plate from New Hampshire were found in Thorpe’s Subaru, Pappirio said.
Assistant Attorney General Kate Bozeman called half a dozen witnesses to the stand on Wednesday. Thorpe’s defense, led by his attorney Mitch Roberge, spent much of the day cross examining Joseph Orcutt, a detective with the Bangor Police Department, about how fingerprinting at Cookson’s home was conducted and what evidence was collected.
Thorpe’s attorneys questioned how fingerprinting is done and why doorknobs, cellphones and gloves found in Cookson’s home were not collected.
Orcutt said fingerprinting these things was “irrelevant” to the homicide, and they collected other fingerprints.
The majority of the evidence Bangor Police collected was on Cookson’s body or in her bedroom, meaning police “didn’t feel it necessary to process the rest of the home,” Orcutt said.
Because no blood stains or any other information was found, there were no signs that anything but strangulation occurred, Orcutt said.
Other witnesses called to the stand included a forensic chemist with the Maine State Police Crime Laboratory, a digital evidence specialist and an assistant to the chief medical examiner.
The trial will continue at 9 a.m. Thursday.
