AUBURN – The last day John Graffam checked off his calendar was Sept. 23, 2005. That likely was the day he was killed, his mother would learn more than a month later.

Sitting on the witness stand in Androscoggin County Superior Court on Tuesday, Liane Micks sniffed and wiped tears from her cheeks as she identified her son’s calendar and photos of his beer bottle-strewn apartment.

She cried again when she recounted how she tried in vain to find her missing son by leafleting the city with his picture. Nobody called. She went to police twice.

Graffam, 29, of Auburn was handicapped by learning disorders and seizures, Micks said.

She collected his Social Security checks, bought his groceries and paid his rent, and checked on him twice a week.

But he wasn’t there that day in September when she came to visit. The windows to his first-floor apartment were open. That wasn’t like him, she said. She went inside. She left him notes. She put a sneaker on his bed. The next time she visited, it hadn’t moved.

Tuesday was the second day in the double-murder trial of Gary Gauthier Jr. and Thomas Dyer. They are accused of killing Graffam and James Vining, 43, both of Auburn. Their bodies were found nearly a year ago buried in shallow graves near abandoned railroad tracks off Foss Road in Lewiston.

The last time she talked to her boyfriend, Alice Keene said it was 10:45 a.m. He told her he loved her and planned to see her soon.

But Vining never showed up at her house that day.

He had helped his friend, William Johnson, deliver newspapers earlier that morning. The two had drunk beer and watched movies afterward at Johnson’s New Auburn apartment.

Vining showered and borrowed $5 from Johnson before he left at about 10 a.m. Johnson never saw him again.

Keene called Johnson that night asking about Vining. He hadn’t shown up at her house.

“I figured he got drunk or something,” Johnson said.

Enter John Miller.

Miller testified Tuesday he was at a friend’s house watching TV late at night when a knock came at the door. It was Gauthier and Dyer, accompanied by Graffam and Vining. They were all drunk, Miller said.

They walked in with a 30-pack of Budweiser beer. Graffam started urging the beer on one of the men at the house. The man resisted. Graffam persisted. Miller’s friend threatened, then finally kicked out the four.

Prosecutors set the stage Tuesday for their cases against the two defendants, calling law enforcement witnesses who testified they swabbed beer bottles and cans for DNA they would later link to Gauthier and Dyer.

Police said they interviewed both defendants early on in their investigation. Both said they had stopped by Graffam’s apartment and took him to the Auburn Mall. They denied knowing Vining.

Peter Rodway, Dyer’s attorney, repeatedly questioned forensics experts about cross-contamination of DNA evidence.

Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Margaret Greenwald explained how blunt-force trauma to the head, consistent with being hit by a baseball bat, killed the two victims.

The trial, which is expected to go through the week, will resume today at 8:30 a.m.