Defense in Korey Kauffman murder case questions woman about dog burial

Defense attorneys on Wednesday questioned a woman about the burial of her dog at a Turlock home where Korey Kauffman was last seen alive.

Testimony in a preliminary hearing for Modesto defense attorney Frank Carson and five others charged in the disappearance and slaying of Kauffman has indicated that Kauffman wanted to steal irrigation pipes from Carson’s 5-acre property on March 30, 2012, before he left Mike Cooley’s home. Carson’s property on Ninth Street and Cooley’s home on Lander Avenue were separated by a cyclone fence.

Linda Burns returned to the witness stand Wednesday morning to continue her cross-examination. She was asked about her dog, who suffered serious burn injuries in a house fire and later died. Burns a few days later moved in with her brother, Cooley, and his girlfriend, Eula Keyes, at the Lander Avenue home.

Before she moved in, she and her brother buried her dog in the backyard of the home near a tree. Burns testified that the grave site was adorned with white rocks, along with flowers she would place there three to four times a week.

She moved out of the home in April 2012. At some point after she moved out – she couldn’t remember when – her other brother, Rick Cooley, dug up the dog from the grave site. Burns testified that she wanted to take the dog to another burial site, because Keyes was moving out.

Burns, Keyes and the Cooley brothers were among the people who last saw Kauffman alive March 30, 2012. Rick Cooley has testified that they warned Kauffman not to go onto the Carson property that night before the 26-year-old man left the Cooley home.

Kauffman’s remains were discovered 18 months later dumped in the Stanislaus National Forest in Mariposa County. Authorities only found Kauffman’s skull and bones and marks from what appeared to be rodents and other animals.

Burns testified that she has heard that after Kauffman went missing, someone buried his bike in the same dog grave site behind her brother’s home. Kauffman had apparently left the bike behind when he left that night, according to testimony from Keyes and Rick Cooley.

Robert Lee Woody, the first person arrested in the case, decided to cooperate with authorities after eight other defendants were arrested Aug. 14. Woody had been in custody for more than a year, charged with Kauffman’s murder, when he decided to cooperate. He has given investigators conflicting stories, they say.

In his most recent account to investigators, Woody said he witnessed Pop-N-Cork liquor store owners Baljit Athwal and Daljit Atwal involved in a scuffle with Kauffman on Carson’s Turlock property that night in late March. Moments later, he says, he heard a gunshot and saw Kauffman’s lifeless body on the ground with Baljit Athwal and Daljit Atwal standing over him.

In mid-August, Woody directed investigators to the Pop-N-Cork liquor store on East Avenue in Turlock, where Woody claims Kauffman’s body initially was buried in a shallow grave. He says they unearthed Kauffman’s body about a month later to move it to another site. Testimony has indicated that Woody then directed investigators to the area in Mariposa County where authorities found the remains in August 2013.

Woody is being prosecuted separately and is expected to testify later in the preliminary hearing. On Wednesday, Chief Deputy District Attorney Marlisa Ferreira told the judge that the prosecution plans to offer a deal to Woody in exchange for his testimony. But the prosecutor said they have not had any negotiations with the defendant or his attorney, and no deal has been offered.

This story was originally published November 4, 2015 at 4:35 PM with the headline "Defense in Korey Kauffman murder case questions woman about dog burial."