A Crookston woman who lived next door to Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. said this morning he was a good neighbor who was good to his mother.
However, when pressed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Norm Anderson, Velma Axtell said after she heard about the disappearance of Dru Sjodin, she called police to let them know Rodriguez was in Grand Forks, N.D., on Nov. 22, 2003 -- the day Sjodin went missing.
Axtell, testifying in Rodriguez's federal kidnapping and murder trial in Fargo, said she spent part of that day with Rodriguez's mother, Delores Rodriguez, whom Axtell described as her neighbor and a good friend.
Axtell said she invited her friend over for a visit and the two women talked from about 5:30 p.m. to about 7:45 p.m., when Delores Rodriguez returned to her home. During their talk, Delores Rodriguez expressed concern about the whereabouts of her son, who had left his mother's house earlier in the day for a trip to Grand Forks, Axtell said.
Alfonso Rodriguez had not returned home by the time his mother left her house, Axtell said, adding that said she knew that because she would have seen his car in the driveway the two households share.
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Prosecutors say Alfonso Rodriguez abducted Sjodin from the Columbia Mall in Grand Forks at about 5 p.m.
Her body was discovered in April 2004 in a ravine less than five miles from the home Rodriguez shared with his mother.
Axtell testified that Rodriguez used to talk to her about going fishing and that one of his favorite spots to fish was under the U.S. Highway 75 bypass bridge near Crookston.
Searchers looking for Sjodin found one of her shoes under the same bridge.
The shoe was entered into evidence Wednesday morning.
Rodriguez recording talks of time before abduction
Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. told an investigator days after Dru Sjodin disappeared that if he was in the agent's shoes, he'd be suspicious of himself.
Jurors in Rodriguez's federal kidnapping and murder trial in Fargo heard a recording of an interview Rodriguez gave investigators Nov. 26, 2003, four days after Sjodin was abducted from the Columbia Mall in Grand Forks, N.D.
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Rodriguez stated he made stops at several stores in the mall the day Sjodin vanished, including the Marshall Field's store, the last place Sjodin was seen alive.
After leaving the mall, Rodriguez said he went to a movie called "Once Upon a Time in Mexico."
However, he could provide few details about the movie.
When Dan Ahlquist, an agent with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Appre-hension, informed Rodriguez the movie was not shown at any theaters in Grand Forks that day, Rodriguez was at a loss to explain himself.
Ahlquist then reminded Rodriguez of crimes he was convicted of in the past and that his own statements put him at the mall around the time Sjodin was abducted.
"If you were me, what would you think?" Ahlquist asked.
"Be suspicious," Rodriguez said.
