Widmer juror: evidence showed Sarah's body was moved

SYCAMORE TOWNSHIP, Ohio - Blood and other bodily fluids were among the things that helped the jury in the third trial of Ryan Widmer convict the Hamilton Township man of murder, according to one of the jurors.

Bryan Bell told lawyer and talk show host Eric Deters during an interview on 700 WLW Thursday afternoon that the evidence led jurors to believe that Sarah Widmer's body had been moved before emergency workers arrived in August 2008.

Bell says blood stains and other bodily fluids, found by authorities, were the most important pieces of evidence. "She had to be completely turned around, so... it looked like it was staged."

Bell says jurors found the 911 call suspicious, but not for what was said by Ryan Widmer.

"The 911 call. The dog was barking at the beginning and there should be no reason for him to be barking, if she is in the tub because that's a natural place for the 'master' to be. So that tells me she was laying on the floor and that's why the dog was going crazy. And a tub filled with water doesn't drain in just 15 seconds."
 

Bell says no votes were taken among the jurors until they had a chance to go through all of the evidence.

The jury convicted Widmer, 30, last month of killing his wife of four months. Bell says he and other jurors generally discounted the testimony of a woman, who testified that Widmer confessed. Bell questioned the woman's motives for traveling across country to meet with Widmer after watching the case on an episode of NBC's "Dateline".

Bell says he suspects Sarah's body may have been moved from somewhere else in the house to the bathroom because the dog was barking extensively during a 911 call her husband made to police. Ryan claimed he came upstairs and found Sarah unresponsive in the bathtub.

Bell says he and the other jurors followed all the jury instructions from Judge Neal Bronson, to the letter.

During the radio interview, he bristled at defense arguments alleging any juror misconduct. He told the radio audience, "There definitely was misconduct. We found it out at the end,... and that was that Ryan Widmer did kill his wife. He murdered her."
 

Widmer was convicted by a jury in 2009, but that conviction was thrown out due to juror misonduct. The second trial ended with a hung jury.

Widmer is currently serving a 15 years to life sentence.