SKOWHEGAN (AP) – A verdict is expected next week for a Canaan man charged with murdering his girlfriend nearly two years ago.

Superior Court Justice Nancy Mills heard closing arguments Friday in the jury-waived trial of Shannon Atwood, 38.

Atwood’s attorney, John Alsop, told Mills there was no question Cheryl Murdoch, 37, was brutally killed, but said there was no direct evidence linking Atwood to her death. Murdoch’s decomposed body was found in August 2006 in a wooded area in Canaan about a month and a half after she was reported missing.

“There is no evidence why, how, or where” the killing happened, Alsop said Thursday, the last day of testimony. “There is no weapon, and there is substantial dispute about when she died or who was involved.”

The prosecution based its case largely on circumstantial evidence along with Atwood’s actions before and after Murdoch’s body was discovered.

Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson said Murdoch’s body was found near a campsite that Atwood frequented and that a piece of rope found next to the body matched the composition of rope in Atwood’s barn. Atwood, he added, was using Murdoch’s cell phone in the days after her death.

The state medical examiner testified that Murdoch died of repeated blows to the head.

Several witnesses portrayed Atwood as a liar and a womanizer.

Benson told Mills that “the evidence against Shannon Atwood is overwhelming.” He invited the judge to “make rational inferences based on facts.”

Atwood was initially charged with a second murder, that of his estranged wife, Shirley Moon-Atwood, who police say was last seen in March 2006. But her body has never been located and the charge was dropped last November.

During Atwood’s trial, Alsop put forth an alternate suspect theory suggesting that Shirley Moon-Atwood may have killed Murdoch in a jealous rage. Three defense witnesses testified that they were confident that they saw Moon-Atwood after Murdoch’s disappearance.

AP-ES-06-27-08 1314EDT