Jury hears of blood in Ramsaran home, van

Sept. 12--NORWICH -- A State Police evidence expert testified Thursday that he detected numerous blood stains inside a minivan used by alleged homicide victim Jennifer Ramsaran as well as many more blood marks inside the South New Berlin home she shared with her husband, Ganesh "Remy" Ramsaran.

More than a dozen blood spots were found inside the Ramsaran home at 473 Sheff Rd. as well as a spot remover, said Investigator Jason Miller, assigned to the Bureau of Criminal Investigation at Troop C, Sidney.

The spot remover, he said, was on top of a men's dresser in the upstairs master bedroom of the home when police searched it on Dec. 18, 2012. Miller said he also participated in evidence searches inside and outside the house the following two days.

Police stepped up their interest in the Ramsaran residence after a substance that appeared to be blood was found inside the orange Chrysler Town & Country minivan when it was searched on Dec. 17, 2013.

That vehicle was found one day earlier in plain view in a lot at Plank Road Manor Apartments near downtown Norwich, just a few blocks from the Norwich YMCA. The gym is where Ganesh Ramsaran had stopped to take a sauna on Dec. 11, 2012, the last day Jennifer Ramsaran was reported to be alive.

Chenango County District Attorney Joseph McBride has acknowledged authorities found no specific cause of death because the corpse was exposed to animal activity, but has contended there is no doubt she was the victim of homicide.

The Onondaga medical examiner, Dr. Robert Stoppacher, testified earlier this week that Jennifer Ramsaran had bled from the top of her head after apparently being struck on the skull, and had several other bruises, cuts and injuries to her body.

Stoppacher, who conducted the autopsy after Jennifer Ramsaran's body was found on an embankment in rural Pharsalia, also had said that he discounted the possibility that she died from natural causes, an accident, an overdose or suicide.

Miller was not questioned on whether the blood found in the van and the house was that of Jennifer Ramsaran. That testimony is expected to come from a forensic laboratory scientist who examined the collected blood evidence.

Admitted into evidence earlier in the trial by County Judge Frank Revoir Jr. is the sweatshirt Ganesh Ramsaran allegedly wore on the day his wife was reported missing. McBride has said the garment had blood stains from both Ganesh and Jennifer Ramsaran on it.

As for the spot remover found in the master bedroom, Miller did not elaborate on its significance.

Ramsaran, now 39, told The Daily Star in early 2013, a few months before he was charged with the killing, that he cooperated fully with police and acceded to all requests to search the house and to remove items. He also asserted at that time that he would not need a lawyer.

Some of the items taken by police, according to Miller's testimony, included a computer tower, a laptop computer, an iPhone, an iPad and several digital storage devices. Those were also admitted into evidence by Revoir.

Miller said the largest blood spot in the van was between the middle and third seat of the vehicle. A section of rug was cut from the vehicle and sent to the crime laboratory for analysis, the investigator said.

The van was examined at a Chenango County Sheriff's department garage, Miller said. The vehicle, he pointed out, was covered with dirt and dust.

It was that vehicle, according to the missing person's report that Ganesh Ramsaran had filed with new Berlin Police the night of Dec. 11, 2012, that Jennifer Ramsaran had taken that morning to go Christmas shopping at a mall near Syracuse. Ramsaran told police she kissed him on the cheek before leaving the house that morning, and then he ran several miles to the Norwich YMCA.

A video from a surveillance camera mounted at the YMCA, however, showed him coming from the west, said James Mullen, the director of the local YMCA.

The account provided to investigators by Ganesh Ramsaran suggested he had headed to the gym from the east.

Police gleaned videos from cameras mounted at several retail stores and a bank in the area, and none of them captured images of him on the route he said he had taken during the time period he said he was going there, said investigator Jason Bessette, who is assigned to the Norwich State Police barracks.

Bessette said he viewed each of those recordings at least twice in their entirety. "I did not see anyone matching the description of Mr. Ramsaran," the investigator testified. Sections of the recordings were also played for the jury.

But Ramsaran's lawyer, Gil Garcia, questioned their value, noting that some of them were motion-activated, meaning they had gaps, potentially significant ones.

Also taking the stand Thursday was State Police Investigator Sara Stedman. She recalled going to the Pharsalia scene to collect evidence when the frozen corpse was found. Trowels had to be used to clear snow and ice from the area around the body, which was sprawled on an embankment about 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 feet below the level of Center Road, she noted.

She also pointed out there was little, if any, snow under the body. Stedman's testimony on that score is potentially significant as Garcia is expected to argue that there is no proof that Jennifer Ramsaran died on Dec. 11, 2012 and that she could have been alive for days or weeks after that.

Because it was getting dark on the day the body was recovered -- Feb. 26, 2013 -- Stedman said investigators returned to the scene the following day, when a silver hoop earring believed to have been owned by the victim was located in the same area where the remains were found.

Testimony was delayed for more than an hour Thursday morning after one of the women on the jury of nine men and three women fell on the stairway entering the courthouse. She was later replaced by one of the female alternate jurors, leaving the gender composition of the panel intact.

Revoir said later the juror who fell broke both her wrists in the mishap. He later advised the jurors that they could send the injured woman a get well card, but it would have to be submitted through a court officer and there could be no mention of the case.

The judge, on a daily basis, has warned members of the panel to avoid media accounts of the proceedings and to refrain from using social media, advising it is apt to include mentions of the case.

Ramsaran, who has acknowledged having an affair with his wife's closest girlfriend during much of 2012, has maintained he had no involvement in his wife's disappearance. The mother of three children, Jennifer Ramsaran was raised in the Rensselaer County community of East Greenbush and was 36 years old when she died.

District Attorney McBride has suggested Ganesh Ramsaran killed Jennifer Ramsaran because of an "obsession" with the now-former girlfriend, Eileen Sayles, whom Ramsaran tried to call more than 2,400 times from the Chenango County Jail.

The prosecutor has also argued that Ganesh Ramsaran stood to pocket $200,000 as the beneficiary of his wife's life insurance policy.

The prosecution testimony is expected to wind up next week, possibly Monday or Tuesday.

Members of both Ganesh Ramsaran's family and Jennifer Ramsaran's family have attended much of the trial.

___

(c)2014 The Daily Star (Oneonta, N.Y.)

Visit The Daily Star (Oneonta, N.Y.) at www.thedailystar.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services