Joseph Duncan’s former girlfriend in Seattle, Sadequa “Dee” Ellis, testified only briefly today. She said she met Duncan at work at Time-Life Libraries between 1995 and 1996. Asked the nature of their relationship, she said simply, “girlfriend.” Duncan sat gazing at her over clasped hands, but didn’t choose to ask her any questions on cross-examination. Ellis confirmed that she owned a 1987 Chrysler New Yorker at the time, and that Duncan at one point took it and left town with it. “That was my car,” she said, adding that she had the vehicle until about 2000.

Ellis never appeared to look at Duncan in the courtroom. Jurors sat looking back and forth from the defendant to the witness.

During former Duncan roommate Joe Ruan’s testimony, Ruan said he knew Ellis. “She was introduced to me as Duncan’s girlfriend,” he told the court. Ruan said, “I know Mr. Duncan as ‘Jet,’ it stood for Joseph Edward the Third.”

Ruan testified that on April 1, 1997, he received a call from Ellis. “She told me that her car was gone and Jet had taken off, and I said, ‘Is this some kind of April Fools joke?’” he recounted. A visit to Duncan’s room showed he had taken clothing, but left his computer and “knickknacks,” Ruan said. Then, he said, Duncan called him on April 6. That was two days after 10-year-old Anthony Martinez’s abduction and murder in southern California. “He asked me why Dee wasn’t answering the phone,” Ruan said. “I said, ‘Well, you took off with her car, she’s mad at you.’” Ruan said he asked Duncan where he was, anyway, and Duncan responded, “I’m in L.A. … I’m going to Disneyland.”

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