Jury sees video of victim’s grave

The camera work was shaky, the images disturbing.

A Snohomish County jury on Wednesday took a video tour of the clearing in the Cascade Mountain foothills where Rachel Burkheimer was shot, killed and buried in September 2002.

The DVD was prepared by detectives who recovered Burkheimer’s body from a crude grave off a logging road outside Gold Bar.

Snohomish County sheriff’s detective Kelly Willoth, one of the lead investigators in the case, provided a running narrative as jurors watched the images captured when a detective carried a video camera down a muddy path leading to the place where Burkheimer’s body was found.

“You could actually see where the ground had sunken down,” Willoth said as the camera focused on the grave.

The DVD was played at the aggravated murder trial of John Phillip Anderson, 22, of Everett. Prosecutors contend he killed Burkheimer, a former girlfriend, out of a mixture of jealous anger and gang-inspired paranoia.

Willoth described how detectives were led to the grave by one of Anderson’s co-defendants, who has already pleaded guilty. She described how, over a period of two days, investigators carefully removed and sifted the soil that covered Burkheimer’s body. Bullet fragments and shell casings were found.

The DVD concluded with images of the opened grave. Burkheimer’s body had already been removed, and indentations showed where she had lain.

“Her feet were at this end and her head was at the other end, just above the impression of her arms,” Willoth told jurors.

Anderson watched the DVD closely, but with no apparent reaction. He sat motionless, his chin in his left hand.

Jurors have already heard from two witnesses who say they were present when Anderson killed Burkheimer, 18. One of the witnesses, Maurice Rivas, said he watched Anderson shoot again and again after ordering her to step into the grave.

Witnesses have told jurors that Anderson had been jealous and physically abusive toward Burkheimer.

On Wednesday afternoon, jurors began hearing testimony from a man prosecutors say is a key witness on how Anderson’s alleged involvement in a gang called the Northwest Mafia is linked to Burkheimer’s death.

Jeff Barth, 23, told jurors that Anderson was a leader in the gang, which made money through a variety of crimes, including burglaries, drug trafficking and drug-related robberies.

Barth explained the group’s structure and purpose. He also recounted some of the crimes, including a robbery in which a man was tricked into bringing four expensive watches to trade for marijuana, and instead wound up losing them at gunpoint.

Barth said he took one of the watches, which the man claimed was a Rolex. Later, Barth said a jeweler told him it was just a cheap knockoff.

In other words, both sides got ripped off in the Northwest Mafia drug deal, deputy prosecutor Michael Downes said.

“That’s what it looked like,” Barth said.

Reporter Scott North: 425-339-3431 or north@heraldnet.com.

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