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Trial underway in 2011 scrapyard death

Police believe James Bidwell killed a woman at a Monroe County scrapyard.

STROUDSBURG, Pa. — Opening statements took place Wednesday in a homicide trial in Monroe County for a man accused of killing a woman at a scrapyard.

James Bidwell of Tobyhanna is accused of killing Kristen Wagner in 2011.

The prosecution is trying to prove that Kristen Wagner did not hang herself. Instead, she was choked by James Bidwell, who then hung her body inside a trailer to make it look like a suicide.

The defense, however, told the jury to pay attention to what they are not being told. Bidwell's attorney said the victim was, in fact, suicidal two months leading up to her death while she was staying at a drug and alcohol treatment center.

During opening statements, the prosecution laid out Bidwell and Wagner's relationship. The victim worked for Wagner at his scrapyard in Stroud Township. It's where her body was found hanging in a trailer back in 2011.

Investigators originally called Wagner's death a suicide, but in 2014, a man close to Bidwell told police that Bidwell admitted to choking Wagner and then made her death look like she took her own life.

The victim was an informant for Pocono Mountain Regional Police, and investigators say things started to get tense between Bidwell and Wagner when she tipped off police that Bidwell had been selling meth.

Bidwell is being represented by Brian McMonagle, Bill Cosby's former attorney.

McMonagle told the jury the prosecution left out a lot of key information, including the fact that Wagner had a prior criminal record, a drug problem, and that two months before her death, while she was staying at a drug treatment center, she claimed she wanted to "inject bleach into her veins" and the man who turned Bidwell in, was under investigation for allegedly stealing equipment from Bidwell.

The prosecution called a few witnesses to the stand, including a Pocono Mountain Regional Police officer and an inmate who claimed he once saw Bidwell try to choke Wagner. However, he didn't report it until 2015.

Bidwell was arrested in 2016.

The trial is expected to last two weeks

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