<div>BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (WCAX) – Prosecutors say Cara Rodrigues stabbed the victim more than 100 times, then dumped her body off a logging road in Wardsboro, but the defense argues that the evidence doesn’t add up.The prosecution began Wednesday’s trial by telling the jury it would have been Emmy Bascom’s 45th birthday. The Guilford woman’s body was found off a rural logging road in Wardsboro in 2022, near where Rodrigues was living at the time. “The defendant Cara Rodrigues murdered her by stabbing her over 100 times,” said Deputy State’s Attorney Dana Nevins.Rodrigues and Bascom had only known each other for a few weeks, but they were already known to the police. The two were spotted in a vehicle on the morning of Bascom’s death after Rodrigues nearly died from a fentanyl overdose. Later on that day, that same car was found near the murder scene with red-brown stains on the sides.Prosecutors say Rodrigues also asked the man she was staying with if she could borrow a cart to move what she told him was a carcass. That’s just some of the evidence prosecutors say links Rodrigues to the murder. “They [found] the defendant’s shirt with reddish-brown stains on it and they [found] Emmy’s purse in a burn barrel,” said Nevins.Multiple members of the state police will be called to testify, but Rodrigues’ lawyer Dan Sedon says the evidence does not point to his client. “The physical evidence, the forensic evidence, the photographic evidence,” he said.We also do not know what led up to the fatal stabbing. A motive for the crime has not yet been offered. “That evidence will tell the story that will leave you convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Cara Rodrigues is innocent of harming her friend,” said Sedon.Approximately two dozen witnesses will be called for the trial, which is scheduled to last two weeks. Rodrigues has been in jail since her first arrest. If convicted, she faces the possibility of life behind bars.</div>

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Trial begins for Wardsboro woman accused of murdering Emmy Bascom

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (WCAX) – Prosecutors say Cara Rodrigues stabbed the victim more than 100 times, then dumped her body off a logging road in Wardsboro, but the defense argues that the evidence doesn’t add up. The prosecution began Wednesday’s trial by telling the jury it would have been...