MOTHER SAYS SHE KNEW BODY WAS DAUGHTER'S

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 18, 1993                   TAG: 9304180093
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By Associated Press
DATELINE: MANTEO, N.C.                                LENGTH: Medium
MOTHER SAYS SHE KNEW BODY WAS DAUGHTER'S
A Virginia Beach, Va., woman testified that knew when she read that a headless torso had been found on a Nags Head beach that the body was her daughter's.
Gertrude Davis testified Friday in the trial of Michael Dial, a 37-year-old Norfolk, Va., construction worker. Dial is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Davis' daughter, Brenda Dozier, the 22-year-old Norfolk cocktail waitress who had been Dial's girlfriend more than a year.
Davis said she last talked to her daughter June 30. Davis had been planning a birthday party for her daughter but couldn't reach her by phone.
Then in July she saw the newspaper story.
"The minute I read it, I knew it was Brenda," Davis said with tears in her eyes. The story mentioned an identifying mark - a rose tattoo - and the victim's weight and height.
After reading it, Davis said she called Brenda's brother and screamed, "Michael killed her!"
Davis said that after the body was found Dial never called, sent a card or sent flowers, "not one word from Michael Dial."
Davis recalled that her daughter, during a November 1990 visit, had shown that her groin area was bruised and blamed the bruise on Dial.
Davis said she asked her daughter why she was staying with Dial, and her daughter said she couldn't leave because "Michael would kill me."
A fellow prisoner testified that Dial told him he killed Dozier because she wanted to break up with him. Dozier was upset because Dial was involved with another woman, James Hartley Jr. testified.
Dial said police would never be able to convict him because they could not prove jurisdiction, Hartley said. Dial never told Hartley where he killed Dozier.
Dial didn't want another man to have Dozier, Hartley testified.
Dial and Dozier had planned a trip to Nags Head to reconcile, but Dial wound up taking her body in his truck and dumped it into the ocean there, Hartley said.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB