Bloody Murder Scene Described Victim’s Agitated Dog Led Neighbor To Grisly Site About Midnight

The man who discovered the grisly scene where Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman lay brutally murdered described it Wednesday for the jury.

“I saw a lady laying down full of blood,” said Sukru Boztepe, who was led to the scene by the dead woman’s dog at about midnight June 12. “I could see the person was a lady. She was blond. I could see her arm. There was a lot of blood.”

A distance shot of the scene at 875 Bundy Drive was flashed onto an overhead screen in the courtroom as several members of the victims’ families began weeping.

O.J. Simpson, standing trial for the murders of his ex-wife and her friend, looked up at the screen and blinked rapidly but showed no emotion.

Boztepe said he and his wife, Bettina Rasmussen, then ran across the street to summon help. No one responded to his bell-ringing at 874 Bundy, so he went on. He asked a woman in a car and a man who answered the door at the next house to call police, who he said arrived within minutes.

Boztepe was one of a number of neighborhood witnesses called Wednesday to establish a time frame for the murders, an issue that is being hotly contested.

Eva Stein, a next-door neighbor of Nicole Simpson’s, said she was awakened about 10:15 p.m. June 12 by the “insistent barking” of a dog coming from beyond Nicole Simpson’s condo. Her boyfriend, Louis Karpf, testified that he saw Nicole Simpson’s Akita barking “profusely” in the street about 10:45.

Steven Schwab, who lives a few blocks away, said he began walking his dog shortly after 10:30 p.m. and at about 10:55 noticed the Akita, with bloodied paws and blood spattered on its legs, a few doors from Nicole Simpson’s home. He said the dog was barking and looking up the walkway to the corner home. He also said the dog followed him home, barking at each of the pathways on the street.

Schwab said he tried to take the dog back to Bundy Drive, but the dog refused to go. He then met up with a neighbor, Boztepe, who took the dog to his apartment, where Boztepe also saw blood on its paws and legs.

The dog, Boztepe said, was so upset that shortly before midnight, he and his wife took it for a walk. As he walked down Bundy, he said, the dog began pulling harder until it stopped in front of 875 Bundy and looked up the walkway. Following the dog’s gaze, Boztepe said, he saw the woman’s body.

Elsie Tistaert, 85, who lives across the street at 874 Bundy, testified that shortly after midnight, someone, presumably Boztepe, rang her doorbell, but she refused to answer and called police to report a possible intruder. Her testimony tended to rebut a defense contention that there was a report of a burglar in the area who could have committed the murders.

Meanwhile, a defense witness who told Simpson’s lawyers that she saw four men running from Nicole Simpson’s condominium on the night of the murders was arrested Wednesday for allegedly defrauding the Marriott Corp. of $23,000.

Mary Anne Gerchas was charged with one count each of grand theft, fraudulent use of a credit card and defrauding an innkeeper.

Earlier in the day, Superior Court Judge Lance Ito refused to quash a subpoena for Simpson’s first wife, Marquerite Thomas, ordering her to appear in court next month.