Prosecutors lay out DNA, surveillance evidence in Roseville murder trial despite missing body

Prosecutors are laying out their case against a Roseville man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend, even though her body has never been found. They say DNA evidence and surveillance video help tell the story of what happened to Ashley Elkins, while the defense argues there are still major gaps in the case.

Deandre Booker was again a no-show in court on the first day of witness testimony in the trial. The judge said the case will proceed without him.

Ashley Elkin's mother was the first to take the stand. Monika Elkins recounted the moment she called police to report her daughter missing.

WATCH: Prosecutors lay out DNA, surveillance evidence in Roseville murder trial despite missing body

"It's been less than 24 hours since you've last had contact with her, correct? Yes. Yet you're making a police report that she's missing? Yes. Why? That's not like her. With me texting and calling, she would call back and her sons were with my daughters at her house. She didn't call and check on them or anything," Monika Elkins said.

The 34-year-old Roseville man is accused of killing Elkins. Prosecutors allege Booker murdered her after she went to his apartment Jan. 2, 2025, and put her body in a nearby dumpster.

Devin Christmas, Booker's neighbor, testified that he heard banging going down the stairs outside his apartment.

"I got woke up out my sleep at like 4 o'clock in the morning," Christmas said. "In the moment I didn't know, but when I finally came about after they finally told me everything that happened, it sounded like someone got threw or tumbled down the stairs, or something got tumbled down the stairs," Christmas said.

Police spent days searching for Elkins' remains at a Macomb County landfill, but her remains were never found.

The whereabouts of Elkins' body was the subject of a terse exchange between Booker's defense attorney and his adoptive niece as she testified.

Defense Attorney Robbie Lang: "Did you see a body in the bathtub behind the shower curtain?"

Witness: "How can I see body through shower curtain?"

Lang: "I don't know."

Witness: "Well think about your questions before you ask."

In the prosecution's opening statement, Carrie Seward painted Booker as an obsessive man who could not get over his breakup with Elkins, alleging that he researched how to kill her and get away with it.

"They find the video of the defendant's final trip to the faraway dumpster where he's pushing a shopping cart. And when they look in that dumpster, they find blood. MSP forensics lab is called out to assist. They are able to test the blood found in the dumpster and they find it is 37 septillion times more likely that is Ashley's DNA than anybody else's," Seward said.

"When they test the DNA from the swab inside the defendant's bathtub drain, they find it is approximately 15 octillion times more likely that it is Ashley's DNA than anybody else's," Seward said.

But Lang argued there is not enough proof to say his client killed Elkins.

"How did her death occur? What was it caused by? Was she shot with a gun? Was she stabbed with a knife?" Lang said. "There will be absolutely no answers to these questions forthcoming in this trial, and I'll tell you why not: There are just too many unanswered questions. There are too many gaping holes in the prosecutor's evidence."

Booker's trial will resume Tuesday and continue throughout the week. The prosecution has about 20 more witnesses it plans to call to testify.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.