“Approximately 40, 50 times.”
That was Travis Helmer’s response when asked by the prosecution how many times he knocked on the door of the Rochester Road, Middleport residence where Edward Dunn had been staying on March 25, 2024.
Helmer is an investigator with the New York State Department of Corrections.
On the second day of testimony in the Edward Dunn murder trial, jurors heard from multiple investigators at both the county and state level, as well as from Dr. Nadia Granger, the Monroe County medical examiner. Piece by piece, a narrative of events was assembled for the jury to consider.
Dr. Granger was the first to take the stand. She testified that she performed an autopsy on Michael Poole on March 20, 2024. Poole, she explained, had suffered three gunshot wounds—two entering beside his right ear and one entering near the outer corner of his right eye.
Granger stated that the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head. All three shots were fired from within a distance of six inches, as indicated by soot patterns found in the wounds. She confirmed that Poole was alive after at least one of the shots, noting that blood had entered his airway and lungs.
“Mr. Poole’s lungs had areas of dark pooling within the lung tissue,” Granger said, adding that the red pooling she observed was consistent with blood from the airway.
When asked by the defense to review the toxicology report, Granger confirmed that Poole had evidence of cocaine and its byproducts in his system, along with two byproducts of marijuana and methamphetamine.
Following Granger’s testimony, several law enforcement officers described the March 25 arrest of Dunn on an outstanding warrant, as well as the March 28 search of the Rochester Road apartment.
Matthew Garber, an investigator with the Fugitive Investigation Unit at the New York State Department of Corrections, testified that he assisted in locating Dunn. Along with Helmer, he knocked on an apartment door, waiting for someone to answer.
“The door was locked,” Garber said. He explained that officers could not force entry because the apartment was not Dunn’s personal residence.
Eventually, Norman Dubois, the leased occupant of the apartment, came downstairs and stated that another person was still inside. That person was Katherine Henry. After Henry came downstairs, Dubois gave officers permission to enter the second-floor apartment.
Upstairs, the investigators found four rooms. In the last room they searched, they discovered a hole in the ceiling—covered by a flag—that led to a two-by-two-foot crawlspace. When they removed the flag, it became clear someone was inside.
“Whoever’s up there, can you make yourself known?” Helmer recalled saying.
It took 10 minutes for Dunn to respond, and five more for him to come down. He was cooperative once he emerged from the crawlspace.
On March 28, three separate search warrants were executed at the same property by officials from Genesee, Orleans, and Niagara counties.
“I intrusively started searching the upstairs bedroom of that apartment,” said Genesee County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Ryan DeLong.
In that bedroom, DeLong found a white pair of FILA sneakers that he recognized from surveillance footage related to a recent burglary. He believed the shoes were linked to other crimes in Genesee and nearby counties.
Outside, investigators searched through garbage located near the entrance to the upstairs apartment. They laid a tarp on the ground and emptied each trash bag onto it. In one bag, they found a spent .22 caliber casing. Another casing of the same caliber was found later. Both bore the letter “A” and were collected as evidence.
DeLong confirmed they also found used black nitrile gloves in the trash—gloves that law enforcement commonly use at crime scenes.
However, defense attorney Paul Vacca challenged the implication.
“People use nitrile gloves to cook, correct?” Vacca asked.
“Correct,” DeLong replied.
The day concluded with testimony from Investigator Brian Marsceill of the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office. Marsceill became familiar with Dunn while investigating a March 13, 2024, burglary of a laundromat in Lyndonville.
Though his presence at the Rochester Road residence was related to the burglary case, Marsceill assisted during the March 28 search.
“I was present while Genesee County did their work,” he testified.
Testimony will resume Friday at 9:15 a.m.
