Christopher Porco is charged with murder and attempted murder of his mother and father Peter and Joan Porco inside their Brockley Drive home, sometime around the early morning hours of Nov. 15, 2004.
Prosecutors believe Porco drove from the University of Rochester where he was a student in the late night hours of Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004, and traveled more than 200 miles along the Thruway to stage a break-in at his family’s home at 36 Brockley Drive, in Delmar early Monday morning Nov. 15.
Based on prior court testimony in the Christopher Porco murder trial in Orange County Supreme Court, and published Spotlight news articles about the crime, here is a timeline that is beginning to emerge based on witness testimony and police investigations:
- Porco allegedly drove from the University of Rochester to Slingerlands on Friday, Nov. 12, to stay overnight at the family home of his former girlfriend Sarah Fischer. According to Fischer’s testimony, Porco left the Fischer family home Saturday afternoon around 3 p.m., Nov. 13 to drive back to the University of Rochester.
- Sarah Fischer testified she continued to communicate with Porco throughout the afternoon and evening hours of Sunday, Nov. 14. The last communication through text messaging on their computers took place just before 10 p.m. Porco was in Rochester at the time and Fischer was in Fairfield, where she was enrolled at the time.
- He signed off at 10 p.m. and said he had to pick up an economics book, Fischer testified.
- Thruway toll collector John Fallon working at the Exit 46 Henrietta tolls testified that he saw a yellow Jeep Wrangler come through his toll lane around 10:45 p.m., Sunday night, Nov. 14, with a young man driving.
`It was a white male in his early- to mid-20s with a baseball cap on,` Fallon said.
- Approximately three hours and 10 minutes later in the early morning hours of Nov. 15, 2004, Exit 24 Albany toll collector Karen Russell testified in Orange County Court in Goshen, that she saw a yellow Jeep come barreling through her toll lane just before her 2 a.m. break.
`I remember seeing a yellow Jeep because of the speed it entered,` Russell stated in court.
- Kurt Meyer, a Time Warner Security employee testified that he sold the home security alarm that was installed inside the Porco family home at 36 Brockley Drive. Meyer said a check of the home’s security system following the attacks show the Porco family security system was disarmed at 2:14 a.m., Nov. 15, 2004.
`The security system was disarmed or turned off by using the master code,` Meyers said in court.
Meyers added that phone lines outside the building were cut that same morning, less than three hours later at 4:54 a.m.
- Albany County Assistant District Attorney David Rossi, who is prosecuting the case against Porco along with Chief Prosecutor Michael McDermott, believes Porco went through the Exit 24 Albany toll plaza at 1:51 a.m. on Nov. 15, 2004, entered his family’s home, attacked his parents Peter and Joan Porco with an ax, then cut the phone lines at 4:54 a.m. before driving back to the University of Rochester where he passed the Henrietta Exit 46 tolls again that morning on Nov.15, at 8:18 a.m.
`The two toll collectors’ testimony fits in with our timeline,` Rossi said. `They are both very credible witnesses.`
- At 11:35 a.m., Nov. 15, 2004 the lifeless body of Peter Porco is found at the bottom of the inside stairs by Third Appellate Division Court Officer Michael Hart.
`He was on his right side, shirt pulled up, and face covered in blood, dark blood,` Hart said.
- The next documented conversation someone had with Christopher Porco took place in the early afternoon around 2 p.m. Monday, Nov. 15, 2004, according to Fischer. Porco communicated with Fischer through another computer text message.
`We were talking, and he said he wasn’t feeling well,` Fischer said. Fischer received an on-line message from her sister Kate in Slingerlands while she was communicating online with Porco. The message stated that something happened at 36 Brockley Drive in Delmar. Porco’s response according to Fischer is that `he hadn’t heard from his parents all morning and that he was nervous.`
- Fischer then went to her 2 p.m. class at Fairfield and when she got out at approximately 3 p.m., Monday, Nov. 15, she received her last message from Porco that day.
`His message said ‘My parents are dead,’` Fischer recalled.
- At 3:09 p.m., Monday, Nov. 15, 2004, Porco contacted the Bethlehem Police Department from his dorm room at the University of Rochester.
`My name is Christopher Porco, and I’m calling to find out if my parents are dead,` he allegedly stated to Bethlehem police dispatcher Brianna Tice. Tice said someone would call Porco back.
- Porco called again at 4 p.m. and repeated to Tice the statement he made earlier. She then forwarded the message to Bethlehem police Detective Charles Rudolph. Rudolph said he would meet Porco when he reached Albany Medical Center to see his mother Joan Porco who was in critical condition from injuries sustained in the attack.
`Hopefully the jury will have enough understanding of how this all fits together,` McDermott said. `During our summation, we will try and connect all of these pieces together.`
The murder trial of Christopher Porco resumes in Orange County Court Monday, July 17.
