Detective pokes holes in alibi

It did not take long for Delia White's story to start to unravel, a detective testified Monday.

White, 57, is on trial for the Nov. 11, 2005, murder of Audelia Bogard in the Mundelein apartment they shared.

Detectives from the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force began questioning White and Steven Arthurs, who is White's son and Bogard's fiance, immediately after Bogard, 43, was found beaten to death.

Detective Kevin Harris testified White told him she and Bogard were alone in the apartment after Arthurs went to work when a man came to the door.

Harris said that White told him Bogard and the man had a brief conversation, and Bogard asked White to leave for a couple of hours.

White said she took Bogard's Jeep and drove around until around 11:45 a.m., when she returned to the apartment complex on Deepwoods Drive.

Arthurs arrived a short time later, White said, and the two of them went into the apartment and discovered Bogard's body.

But Harris said there were numerous discrepancies in White's story.

To begin with, he said, she told him that the man arrived at the apartment between 9:30 and 9:45 a.m. but also said it was no later than 9:10 a.m. when she left.

White at one point described the man as being between 30 and 40 years old, Harris said, and at another point said he was at least 50.

Harris said White told him she suffered bruises on her hands and arms that morning when she fell while walking the dogs, but Arthurs told another detective Bogard had taken the dogs out that day.

"She did not try to explain away the contradictions I was pointing out to her," Harris said. "In most cases she simply responded by saying, 'I don't know.'"

The following day, after a brief meeting with Arthurs at which he said his mother admitted killing Bogard, White gave police a videotaped confession.

In it, she says she was arguing with Bogard over use of the Jeep when she "blacked out" and remembers nothing but seeing Bogard's lifeless body on the floor.

White said she took a bag and filled it with bloody clothes and other things, then threw the bag into Lake Michigan.

Police believe Bogard was beaten with some type of an object, and Arthurs told police Bogard's jewelry box was missing from their bedroom after the killing.

Testimony is expected to continue today.