NORWALK, Conn., May 7 (UPI) -- Martha Moxley's mother described Tuesday how she learned that her 15-year-old daughter was found dead outside her family home in Greenwich, Conn., on Oct. 31, 1975.
Testifying as the first prosecution witness at the murder trial of Kennedy kin Michael Skakel, Dorthy Moxley told of how she had called numerous homes in Greenwich late into the night, waking up parents and teenagers to ask if they knew where Martha was.
At about 12:30 the next afternoon, 15-year-old Sheila McGuire appeared at the Moxley's front door. Moxley said the girl looked hysterical.
"She said, 'I think I found Martha.' I said, 'Is she all right?' She said, 'No, I don't think so.'"
McGuire, taking a shortcut through the Moxley property, had come upon Martha's dead body under a large pine tree about 50 yards from the Moxley home.
Dorthy Moxley said a friend who was with her at the time said, "'You stay here and I'll go look.'"
When the woman returned moments later, according to Dorthy Moxley, she said, "'Well, yes. It's Martha. And we think she's dead."
So far in court appearances, Dorthy Moxley has appeared confident and smiling, giving a thumbs-up sign to reporters outside. Even as she listened to lawyers asking her questions about the night her daughter died, she smiled politely. But when she recalled how she received the news of Martha's death, her smile left her.
Later, when she was given her daughter's diary to identify, she briefly caressed the small volume before gently setting it down and leaving the witness box.
The diary was entered into evidence. In a neat, girlish handwriting, Martha mentioned how she knew both Michael Skakel and his older brother, Thomas. On Sept. 4, 1975, she recorded sneaking into neighbors' swimming pools with both boys and some others.
On Sept. 12, Martha wrote, Michael bought her an ice cream while they were out with several other teenagers. On Sept. 19, she wrote that Michael accused her of "leading Tom on," and Michael became so belligerent with Tom and another boy that a fist fight almost started.
Dorthy Moxley testified that she didn't know Martha even socialized with the Skakel boys.
Skakel, 41, is on trial in Norwalk on a charge that he murdered Martha Moxley with his mother's golf club when both were 15 and living in the same neighborhood in a fashionable section of Greenwich.
When the murder charge against him was read in court Tuesday, Skakel's face turned red.
Dorthy Moxley, and her son, John, who also testified, left the courtroom along with friends and supporters before prosecutors projected pictures of the body onto a screen on the wall behind the witness stand. Skakel's siblings -- Rushton Jr., Steven and Julie -- remained in court.
Some of the more gruesome pictures were not projected on the screen, but they were passed out to the jurors. Skakel's lawyer, Michael Sherman, objected to some of the pictures, saying they were unnecessary and prejudicial, but he was overruled.
Dominick Dunne, a journalist and novelist who has written a novel based on the Moxley slaying, said he had already seen some of the pictures, and they appeared to upset some on the jury.
McGuire, now of Redding, Conn., also testified Monday. She was within a few feet of the body when she recognized it was Martha. She immediately ran to the Moxley front door, she said. Skakel's lawyer, Sherman of Stamford, Conn., asked McGuire how long it took her to get to the house.
"Mr. Sherman," McGuire replied, "it took a lifetime."
In opening statements earlier Tuesday, State's Attorney Jonathan Benedict said witnesses will testify that Skakel admitted to killing Moxley as early as 1978, but Sherman said the state lacks evidence to support a guilty verdict.
Skakel is charged with murdering Moxley on Oct. 30, 1975 -- known as "mischief night," the night before Halloween.
Benedict said this mischief night "became one family's everlasting nightmare."
Moxley's body, with her underpants pulled down, was found the following morning.
He said Martha was beaten with a golf club "so furiously so that the golf club fell apart. She was subsequently stabbed with a portion of the golf club right through her neck from right to left."
The grip and the first two inches of the club, where the owner's name would have been, were missing, Benedict said. He added, however, police matched the club to a set belonging to Skakel's mother.
He also said the Skakel children and their cousins "were abruptly and mysteriously" taken away for the weekend by the Skakel family to hinder the police investigation.
Benedict said that not for several days "did anyone provide an explanation for what the defendant did and where he was for the rest of the night."
But Skakel talked about the crime in later years, Benedict said.
"Some people simply cannot keep a secret," he said. "That is how this case eventually unraveled for Michael Skakel."
"He'd been talking about this night at issue since at least the spring of 1978, sometimes out of apparent guilt or apparent panic," Benedict said.
He said that some of Skakel's statements that other witnesses will testify about "may seem to you to be innocent or ambiguous when standing in isolation, ... but when put together with the known facts of this case, they will permit you only one logical, sensible, reasonable conclusion -- the defendant murdered Martha Moxley."
Sherman, however, said the witnesses from the Elan School for troubled youth in Maine, attended by Skakel, are unreliable.
He said they are suffering from the "I Love Lucy" syndrome, where Lucy always tried to get into husband Ricky's club act.
Sherman said the witnesses are coming out now because they wanted to get into the act, but their stories won't add up.
"It's a heck of a show," he said "You've got best selling authors, you've got TV satellite trucks, you've got the Kennedy connection."
Sherman said not only was Skakel not the murderer, "he wasn't even in the neighborhood." He said Skakel was at his cousin's house in northern Greenwich at the time of the alleged murder.
Sherman very gently pressed Dorthy Moxley about the time her daughter had been expected home. At some points, Dorthy Moxley told authorities that her daughter was expected back at 9:30 p.m. At other times, she said it was 10:30 p.m. Sherman's questions tried to lead her to say it was 9:30, questions from Susan Gill, a prosecutor on Benedict's team, indicated the time was really 10:30.
Mark Fuhrman, who wrote a book about the Moxley slaying, sat in a second-row seat with the family. Dunne sat not far away in the third row. Reporters occupied most of the benches in the 170-seat courtroom.
More than 50 news organizations have been drawn to the case by Skakel's links to the Kennedy clan. His aunt, Ethel, is the widow of U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. She is among the Kennedys expected to attend at least part of the trial, along with her son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The trial is expected to last about five weeks.
