Twitchell “stressed out” after police interview, friend tells court

A red car Mark Twitchell said he bought from a stranger for $40 days after Johnny Altinger allegedly went missing was the focus of testimony Thursday morning at his first-degree murder trial.

Det. Brian Murphy told court he met Twitchell at a 7-Eleven store on the evening of October 19, 2008, to see if the aspiring filmmaker could provide a key for a garage at 57th Street and 40th Avenue that had become the centre of a missing person investigation.

During the conversation, Twitchell told Murphy he had “some important information.”

In his testimony, Murphy relayed the story Twitchell had told him about meeting a stranger who had tapped on his window at a gas station and offered to sell him a car for $40, because his “sugar momma” was taking him to the Caribbean and would buy him a new car when he returned.

According to Murphy, Twitchell said he agreed to buy the car if the stranger would bring it to the Mill Woods garage where he had been filming a short horror movie. But the car — a red Mazda 3 — had a manual transmission, so Twitchell asked his friend Joss Hnatiuk to move the car to his parents’ house nearby, since Twitchell couldn’t use a stick shift.

“He was very, very open. He explained everything in great detail,” Murphy said about Twitchell’s tone during the conversation. “He seemed very calm and relaxed.”

That conversation between Murphy and Twitchell took place about 18 hours after Twitchell left the southwest division police station, where Det. Mike Tabler had first interviewed him. Twitchell made no mention of the car during the hour-long interview.

But Twitchell e-mailed Tabler shortly before meeting Murphy, relaying the same story about a red car he had purchased for $40. In the e-mail, he wrote that he had forgot to mention a few “odd occurrences” during their interview.

Court has previously heard that Altinger drove a 2005 red Mazda 3. Twitchell is accused of luring Altinger to the Mill Woods garage by posing as a woman on an Internet dating site and killing him on Oct. 10, 2008.

Hantiuk, who moved the red car for his friend, testified Thursday that Twitchell had called him around 5 a.m. on Oct. 19, 2008, shortly after leaving his interview with Tabler.

“He said he was stressed out. He said that it was weird, stuff had been moved around (in the garage) and that the key didn’t work on the door,” Hnatiuk testified.

Hnatiuk had recently worked with Twitchell and a small film crew to make the horror movie, called House of Cards. According to Hnatiuk, Twitchell said police had asked him questions about a missing man and about when he had last been at the film location.

When Hnatiuk mentioned the car in that early-morning conversation, Twitchell seemed surprised.

“He sounded surprised,” Hnatiuk said. “He said he’d forgotten about the car and that he must have just blanked.”

Twitchell told his friend he was concerned it was a “setup,” an idea that Hnatiuk described as “silly.”

Court heard that Twitchell was questioned again by police in the early morning hours of Oct. 20, 2010. He also provided a written statement to police, in which he repeated that he had bought a car for $40.

In the statement, Twitchell also wrote that he believed his usual car had been broken into about two weeks prior and that some personal information had been taken.

"At this point it seems that whoever broke into my car on the 8th (of October, 2008) used all of the information they stole to use my location and personal property for who knows what….At this point, I'm alarmed that unknown persons know where I live and may be entering premises I'm supposed to be in control of. I don't know if the person who sold me the other car is involved but looking back it certainly feels that way and I have to wonder if I'm being targetted (sic) or if it's a nasty coincidence."

Court is expected to hear more about Twitchell's second interview with police on Thursday afternoon.