Grand Haven — Troy Brake’s girlfriend, Tarah VanDyke, said she assumed he was “with some girl” when he didn’t return home after visiting a friend Sept. 28, 2008, during Brakes trial Friday in Ottawa County’s 20th Circuit Court.
Brake, 31, is being tried for the slayings of four people, including MSU student Katherine A. Brown.
“I have trust issues,” she told prosecutor Ronald Frantz.
Brake has been charged with four counts of open murder and three felony firearm charges in connection with the deaths of Brown, 18; her boyfriend Jeremy Zimmer, 20; his mother Sharmaine Zimmer, 53; and his brother Tyler Zimmer, 17. All were found dead in the Zimmer home Sept. 29, 2008. It was set on fire to cover up the killings, investigators said.
VanDyke’s account of the night before investigators found the charred Zimmer home and four bodies has changed several times since she was first interviewed, Frantz said. Frantz challenged her testimony Friday, saying she knew the story Brake has told her was “Bologna.”
“You knew he was making up a story and wasn’t telling the truth,” he said.
When first questioned on Oct. 16, 2008, VanDyke described the night as a “typical Sunday night,” during which she and Brake were in bed by 11:30 p.m. after he immediately returned home from work.
The trial is expected to last for three weeks.
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