The first witness to take the stand against the suspects accused of murdering Craig Rideout talked about how he found Rideout’s body off a rural road in Yates County last year.
Lowell Weaver is a Mennonite farmer who was up at 4:30 in the morning, and riding his bicycle down Adams Road to the farm where he worked when he saw a car with a couple of people beside the road. Weaver said that was unusual, so he rode faster as he went by.
On his way back from his chores, Weaver said he spotted a shovel on the roadside about where the car and people had been. Photos of the shovel were shown to the jury. He also saw where something looked to have been dragged through the grass and into the woods beside the road.
Weaver stopped and followed the drag marks into the woods, where he saw a tarp. He lifted one corner and saw a bare human foot. that’s when he ran to a neighbor and asked them to call the police.
Craig Rideout’s estranged wife, Laura, the couple’s two sons and Rideout’s boyfriend, Paul Tucci, are all on trial for murder and evidence tampering in Rideout’s death. They’re accused of strangling him, attempting to disfigure his body and dumping him beside that farm road.