Kira Trevino's body found battered, nude
The body of a missing St. Paul woman was battered and naked when it was recovered from the Mississippi River, according to court documents.
Injuries to Kira Steger's body included a head wound, a broken finger, bruising inside the lip and lacerations to the liver, KSTP-TV reported, citing the court documents.
The 30-year-old woman's remains were recovered Wednesday from the river in downtown St. Paul. Her husband, Jeffery Trevino, 39, is scheduled to stand trial May 28 in her death. He remains jailed on $1 million bond in Ramsey County.
Prosecutors filed a motion Friday seeking more time for experts to analyze evidence in the case, including Steger's body. Defense attorneys wanted results of evidence testing by May 15. Trevino's attorney, John Conard, did not immediately return a phone call to The Associated Press on Friday.
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The Star Tribune reported that the Ramsey County medical examiner's office identified Steger based on dental records. Although she was widely known by her husband's last name, she retained her legal name of Steger after her marriage, the newspaper said.
During the autopsy, a wadded piece of duct tape was also found in the woman's hair. More analysis is needed to determine if the duct tape matches other duct tape found with human hair and white animal hair in Keller Lake Regional Park in Maplewood, which had been a large focus of searches in the investigation early on. Steger owned a white dog, which could be the source of the animal hair.
Steger, a native of central Wisconsin, was last seen alive Feb. 21. Trevino has pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree murder.
Prosecutors say the injuries to Steger's body should be further examined to determine manner of death and whether her wounds happened before or after her death. The medical examiner's office found partially digested food in her stomach, which could lead to a more precise time of death.
If the duct tape found in Steger's hair can be matched to the duct tape found near Keller Lake, prosecutors may request that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension resume testing of the human hair found on the tape roll. Prosecutors earlier told the BCA not to further test the hair because it wouldn't have been finished in time to meet the evidence testing deadline.
The BCA has indicated that the DNA analysis will take four weeks. The medical examiner's office said the complete autopsy report will require six weeks.
Prosecutors have requested that the new deadline for testing be rescheduled at a pretrial conference Wednesday.
