Investigator: Suspect in girlfriend’s death never asked about her

A Modesto police missing-persons investigator testified Thursday about questioning Anthony Coxum about his girlfriend, Eldoris Graham, whose body was found buried in a shallow grave in east Modesto.

Coxum, 40, is accused of stabbing Graham multiple times and burying her body beneath a pedestrian bridge at Creekwood Drive and Claus Road, near Johansen High School. Coxum’s trial continued Thursday with testimony from Bonn Panyanouvong, who in mid-December 2012 was following up on a missing-persons investigation into Graham.

The prosecution says Coxum was the last person to see Graham, 28, alive on Dec. 13, 2012. Graham’s mother, Kathie Patterson, spoke to Graham on the phone for the last time that day. Two days later, Patterson reported her daughter missing.

On Dec. 17, 2012, Panyanouvong called Graham’s phone, but it was no longer in service. She then called Coxum’s phone, asking him to call her back. He didn’t return the phone call.

Panyanouvong called Coxum again numerous times, but nobody answered. On Dec. 19, 2012, Coxum called Panyanouvong and answered some questions about his missing girlfriend.

“He said he had nothing to hide and he did not know where she was,” Panyanouvong said.

That same day, Coxum arrived at his friend’s North Carolina home driving Graham’s car. His friend testified that Coxum lied to his father, saying he was in Nevada, and he told his mother to tell anyone looking for him that he was in Nevada.

In the conversation with the missing-persons investigator, Coxum said he drove his girlfriend to Oakland in a spur-of-the moment trip. He told Panyanouvong that Graham packed a suitcase with clothes and her medication for a trip expected to last a few days. He said he believed Graham was heading to Detroit.

Panyanouvong testified that she never suggested that a murder or other a crime had occurred. She said Coxum’s voice sounded normal and that he did not ask any questions about his missing girlfriend.

Coxum told the investigator that he had Graham’s car because she had sold it to him and that he had documentation to prove the sale. Panyanouvong asked Coxum to meet her the following day at the Modesto Police Department, so she could see this documentation. Coxum agreed to the meeting, but he never showed up.

Panyanouvong called Coxum again, but he never returned her calls.

A few blocks northeast of Coxum’s father’s home is where authorities unearthed Graham’s body in mid-January 2013, about a month after she disappeared. The prosecution claims Coxum was living with his father at the time of Graham’s disappearance.

Pedestrians were the first to encounter the shallow grave and called police. The pedestrians spotted one of Graham’s arms while the rest of her body was buried. Investigators spent hours exhuming her body that night on the intersection’s southwest corner.

This story was originally published January 26, 2017 at 4:19 PM with the headline "Investigator: Suspect in girlfriend’s death never asked about her."