A test confirms

that the man accused of killing

a Colby student

was in her car.

PORTLAND (AP) – A microscopic DNA sample confirmed that a parolee accused of abducting and killing a Colby College student had been in the woman’s car, according to newly released court documents.

The documents disclose details of the police effort to build a case against Edward J. Hackett in the slaying of 21-year-old Dawn Rossignol last month.

The Medway woman disappeared on Sept. 16 after leaving her dormitory in Waterville at about 7:20 a.m. to meet her mother in Bangor.

Police affidavits filed in Waterville District Court in support of a search warrant for Hackett’s house and car and to show probable cause for Hackett’s arrest on murder and kidnapping charges had been kept confidential at the request of state prosecutors.

The Blethen Maine Newspapers filed a motion seeking to have the documents made public and just before a hearing was to be held on the issue Thursday, prosecutors decided to release the papers.

Much of the information contained in them had been made public by Hackett in an interview that appeared Thursday in the Portland Press Herald.

“Impoundment no longer serves those interests now in light of the fact he’s given you not every one but many of the details contained in the affidavit,” Deputy Attorney General William Stokes said.

Against the advice of his lawyer, Hackett spoke to the Portland Press Herald in an interview at the Kennebec County Jail.

Hackett said he was driving from Vassalboro to a counseling session on the morning of Sept. 16 when he saw Rossignol getting into her car.

Hackett said he stopped and forced Rossignol to drive to a gravel road in Oakland where she was assaulted and killed.

“She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said.

Hackett was released six months ago after serving 11 years for an abduction in Utah.

He had been living with his parents in Vassalboro after returning from Utah. Hackett is being held without bail on charges of kidnapping and murder with a court appearance scheduled for Nov. 18.

AP-ES-10-17-03 0216EDT



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