Day two of the Lee County trial for the murder of Lori Slesinski

LEE COUNTY, Ala. (WTVM) - Day two of the trial in Lee County for the murder of Lori Slesinski resumed this morning.

Friends and co-workers of Slesinski took the stand today following emotional testimony from Slesinski’s mother on Friday to describe the days immediately following Sleskinski’s last known appearance.

Thaddeus Lockhart, a co-worker of Slesinski’s at East Alabama Health, was on the witness stand today and said it was out of character for her not to show up to work. He said she was a dependable person.

“June 13th, did Lori come into work?”

“She didn’t. I asked my supervisor did she called in, and we all got kind of worried, like, why not? Nobody heard from her,” responded Lockhart.

That’s when Lockhart and Lindsay Braun, another co-worker, were instructed by their supervisor to conduct a welfare check.

Lockhart said he immediately noticed Slesinski’s car was gone and saw a trashcan with a missing lid.

Braun said she invited Slesinski to have a girls’ day at her house on Saturday, June 10th. Braun said the last time she talked to her was at 6:30 that evening on the phone. She said she heard a man’s voice in the call’s background.

“Do you know if she was alone?”

“Rick was in the background,” stated Braun.

“You could hear him in the background?”

Braun replied, “Yes.”

She said at 7 p.m., Slesinski called back, but the line only rang once before ending.

Braun said she tried to call back, but it went straight to voicemail. So she tried to call back all weekend before the answering machine stopped picking up calls.

“But I know I called her throughout. Her answering machine on her home phone picked up through the weekend and then somewhere through Sunday and Monday. I couldn’t tell you when now, at this point, the voicemail quit picking up,” Braun said.

She said she texted Ennis on Tuesday asking if he’d seen Slesinski, and he replied that he was worried as well but said she was probably fine.

When Braun and Lockhart showed up at her mobile house Tuesday, she noticed the answering machine had zero messages.

Copyright 2022 WTVM. All rights reserved.