Tape describes murdered jogger's agony

By NAOMI LARKIN

The man accused of the murder and rape of jogger Margaret Lynne Baxter confessed to hitting her with his car, stabbing her and smashing a ceramic tile on her head.

Dartelle Maremare James Alder, a 23-year-old process worker of Flaxmere, is charged with murdering the 38-year-old Wellington woman on Sunday, January 21, when she was jogging in Hastings.

He faces five other charges, including sexual violation by rape, sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, assault using his car as a weapon, assault with intent to commit sexual violation and kidnapping with intent to have sexual intercourse. He has entered no plea.

At the depositions hearing in the Hastings District Court yesterday, a videotaped interview showed Alder telling Detective Kristina Eckhold that he had gone to get petrol for his car on the Sunday morning and was driving home along Stock Rd.

Alder said he was "just listening to my sounds" when a stone hit the windscreen. He swerved and heard a bang.

"Then I just saw the blood on the windscreen. I got out and sawher gurgling in the ditch.

"I knew I had been drinking the night before and learner's licence and all that stuff ... and all my family stuff ... I knew I would get into trouble and my mum's got enough things on her plate."

He put Ms Baxter into his black Mitsubishi Galant and drove to a secluded house in Maraekakaho Rd.

"I got out and put her on the driveway and she was hard-up gurgling ... and I freaked out ... I grabbed the ceramic thing first ... I was panicking, I just wanted it to stop. I threw it at her head ... It broke."

Alder then picked up a short, steak-type knife from his car and put it to her throat. Next he put her into the car boot, with the knife, which had snapped at the handle, the broken tile and his bloody shoes.

He jumped into a swimming pool and remained at the house for several hours before driving home.

He denied sexually violating Ms Baxter.

Earlier, prosecutor Graham Lang said Ms Baxter and her partner, Vitas Bercinskas, were spending Wellington's Anniversary Weekend in Hastings and the couple had decided to go for a mid-morning run between Flaxmere and Bridge Pa.

After 20 minutes, they split up and Ms Baxter headed back along Stock Rd. In Stock Rd, Alder deliberately drove into the back of her and the pathologist's evidence would show she suffered injuries consistent with this, Mr Lang said.

The pathologist's evidence would also show she was stabbed 35 times and sexually violated. A further three heavy blows on the right side of her face would have been "unsurvivable."

Mr Lang said a witness provided police with Alder's car registration, and when officers confronted him that day, he admitted the killing.

Detective Eckhold told the court that when she visited Alder on the evening of the killing at his mother's house where he lived, she asked him: "Something terrible has happened in your car today hasn't it?"

She said Alder put his head down, his eyes flooded with tears and he said: "I killed a woman and I ran her over."

Detective Eckhold asked him where the woman was and Alder told her she was in the boot. Police found Ms Baxter's body there.

The hearing is due to resume on Thursday.