AUBURN – Richard Dwyer’s murder trial opened Monday with jurors touring the Lewiston locations central to 38-year-old Donna Paradis’ life, which he’s accused of snuffing out.

Visited were the Pierce Street home she shared with her two daughters, the Sun Journal on Park Street, where she worked nights, Affiliated Computer Services on Lisbon Street, where she worked with Dwyer, and the wooded area behind the Promenade Mall on Lisbon Street, where her naked body was found in a shallow grave, strips of cloth around her wrists and neck.

Dwyer, 45, of Canton is accused of raping, robbing and strangling Paradis in October 2007. Paradis was seven-and-a-half months pregnant at the time.

Dwyer’s murder trial started Monday. Jurors spent part of the morning on a bus, stopping for a few moments at each location that will be discussed during the trial.

At the Promenade Mall they got off the bus and trekked along a short, muddy path and through brush to peer across the edge of a gully. Several hundred yards away, a Maine State Police detective waved an orange flag to alert them to the spot where Paradis’ body was found on Nov. 12.

Afterward, jurors reboarded the bus and returned to the Androscoggin County Superior Courthouse to hear opening arguments in the trial. Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese told the jury that upcoming evidence, including a shovel, a pick ax, store surveillance video and DNA, will link Dwyer to the murder.

Dwyer’s attorney, George Hess, asked the jury not to rush to judgment.

“Mr. Dwyer sits before you an innocent person,” he said of his client, who appeared in court dressed in a blue blazer and green slacks.

Marchese spent the rest of the day laying the groundwork for her case against Dwyer, with police, co-workers and other witnesses confirming that Dwyer worked with Paradis, had offered to help her buy a car, passed her a note about a car on the day she disappeared and had no alibi for that same afternoon. Video from ACS surveillance cameras showed Dwyer and Paradis arriving at work that day and Dwyer leaving about a half hour before Paradis.

Paradis was last seen in the afternoon of Oct. 23, when she left ACS at the end of her shift and went to a local Northeast Bank to get a money order for $400, the amount Dwyer had told her she’d need to buy a car. According to a bank teller who testified Monday, Paradis returned to the bank a few minutes after getting the money order, cashed it and got $400 in $100 bills.

Paradis wasn’t seen alive again. Her Sun Journal supervisor testified that she didn’t show up for her evening shift as a retention clerk at the paper. Her 18-year-old daughter testified that her mother didn’t come home that night or the next morning. Paradis’ ex-husband reported her missing soon after.

Marchese also played a 45-minute video of Dwyer being interviewed by police. In it, he told detectives that Paradis wanted a car but couldn’t afford the payments. He said he told her where she could find affordable cars, including car lots that allowed low down payments and used cars he saw for sale on the side of the road on his way to work. On the day she disappeared, he passed Paradis a note that said he had a car out front “and she can look at it if she wants.”

On the tape, Dwyer said he left ACS early that day because he felt sick. He said he drove around, possibly to Lake Auburn.

Dwyer also said he’d heard rumors about Paradis, including one that she’d run off.

“I don’t think any of them are correct,” he told police.

Dwyer is being held at Androscoggin County Jail without bail.