[bloodrayne]

Vivid Testimony In Bellevue Chainsaw Murder Case

Maquoketa, Iowa — The former girlfriend of a man charged with killing antiques dealer Gregory May testified today in vivid detail how May was strangled and then dismembered with a chain saw.

Douglas DeBruin, 55, of Kenosha, Wisconsin, is charged with first-degree murder and theft in May’s death at his home in Bellevue.

May, DeBruin and Julie Miller, DeBruin’s girlfriend at the time, lived together for a few months in late 2000 and early 2001. May was reported missing in January 2001.

Miller, 45, said May was behind her, looking at a tattoo on her back. She heard a noise and turned around to see DeBruin strangling May with a nylon cord. She ran downstairs.

Later, she helped DeBruin carry May’s body to the washing machine, where DeBruin cut up the body with a chain saw and knife.

‘‘He made me stay there,’’ she said. ‘‘I don’t recall the specifics. I didn’t use the chain saw. He made me use the knife.’’

She said May’s body parts were put in plastic garbage bags. His torso was tossed over the Sabula-Savanna Bridge. His legs and arms were dumped along the river north of Bellevue. His head was later put in a bucket with cement and water.

May’s children and ex-wife sat in the front row of the courtroom and cried as Miller spoke.

DeBruin looked at Miller a few times, but otherwise showed no emotion.

Miller is serving a three-year sentence in a federal prison in Pekin, Illinois, for transporting stolen property across state lines.

After May was killed, Miller said she and DeBruin loaded a truck with May’s collection of Civil War memorabilia, which they sold off as they traveled across the country. The two were arrested in April 2001 in Flagstaff, Arizona.