BANGOR, Maine — The Orono man accused of using Facebook to lure 15-year-old Nichole Cable to her death said in his initial conversation with police that he thought she’d “gone off to hang out with friends for a couple of days” and would return home.
The first of three audio recordings of Kyle Dube talking with Maine State Police detectives Jay Pelletier and Thomas Pickering was played for jurors at the end of the fourth day of Dube’s trial Thursday. The recording was made the morning of May 15, 2013, when the investigators picked Dube up at the Bangor house where he worked for the Getchell agency caring for a woman with a mental health disability and drove him to the campus of the Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Centers where their offices were located.
The formal interview with Dube is scheduled to be played Friday morning. A third interview, recorded on May 16, 2013, is expected to be played Monday.
Dube is accused of luring Cable out of her mother’s home in Glenburn on Mother’s Day nearly two years ago by using someone else’s identity on Facebook, then killing her in an abduction gone wrong.
Dube allegedly planned to kidnap the girl, hide her, then find her and play the hero.
He has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and murder in the May 12, 2013, death of the Old Town High School student.
It was difficult Thursday to hear Dube on the recording. Jurors at the Penobscot Judicial Center and Cable’s friends and family were given transcripts of the conversation. They were not given to reporters.
Much of the conversation was small talk about Dube’s then 4-year-old daughter, Savannah, and his job. Dube did tell the detectives the client he’d been caring for had attacked him and scratched his face in a rage.
The prosecution on Tuesday showed the jury a photo of Dube with scratches above and next to his left eye. In the picture, Dube also had scratches left of his nose and on his upper lip.
Pelletier said Thursday that he took that photograph of Dube.
Dube also told the detectives he had spoken to Cable’s mother, Kristine Wiley, and offered to help however he could. He also said he had talked to other people about Cable’s disappearance and was aware of the search for her.
Wiley testified Monday that Dube had called her and offered to help care for her younger children.
The conversation did not include statements about how Dube met Cable or the nature of their relationship.
On Thursday morning, a Maine Warden Service lieutenant testified that he discovered Nichole Cable’s body covered in leaves, dirt and branches on May 20, 2013, in a wooded area near Gilman Falls in Old Town.
Daniel Scott said he was called at about 9 p.m. to assist in the search for Cable, 15, of Glenburn, who had disappeared more than a week earlier from her mother’s home. The public joined an intensive search for the teen.
Scott told the jury of eight men and seven women he brought his retired certified cadaver dog, Roxie, to assist in the search.
He took the dog down a trail toward the “backwater area,” and Scott said “[Roxie] took off at a dead run down the trail.”
About 25 yards before he could see the water, the dog veered off the trail and into the woods. “She went to a berm of earth and laid down,” Scott testified. “That was the indicator that a cadaver had been found.”
The game warden said he could see what appeared to be brown hair in the leaves. “I thought it could be a human under there but also could be an animal that died,” Scott testified.
As he walked around the berm, Scott told the jury he saw a human leg in the pile.
Maine State Police Sgt. Darryl Peary testified Thursday afternoon that because of the late hour and the darkness, the decision was made to photograph the scene and to transport Cable’s body the next day, May 21, 2013, to the Maine medical examiner’s office for an autopsy.
Cable died of “asphyxia due to compression of the neck,” Dr. Margaret Greenwald of the state medical examiner’s office testified Thursday afternoon. Greenwald told jurors that there were linear abrasions on Cable’s neck and scratches under her chin. There also were multiple abrasions and contusions on Cable’s face, including her forehead, left eye, left cheek, nose and lip, Greenwald told jurors.
The now retired medical examiner also said it was impossible to determine exactly when Cable died. Greenwald estimated the teenager had been dead for days or several weeks before she was found. Under cross-examination, Greenwald said that Cable could have been killed just three days before her body was discovered.
If Dube is convicted of murder, he faces between 25 years and life in prison. He is being held without bail.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence and would like to talk with an advocate, call 866-834-4357, TRS 800-787-3224. This free, confidential service is available 24/7 and is accessible from anywhere in Maine.