Underwear on Slain Student Was Different, Friend Testifies

The sheer thong panties found on the remains of slain Moorpark College student Megan Barroso were not the same underwear she was wearing in the hours before she died, her best friend testified Thursday.

Lindsay Gross told jurors that when Barroso changed clothes at her house before they went out with friends, she was wearing plain cotton bikini-style panties.

Shown a plastic evidence bag containing the sheer thong underwear found on Barroso’s decomposed remains, Gross said: “Those were not the underwear that I saw her wearing that day.”

The testimony is considered crucial in the prosecution of confessed serial rapist Vincent Sanchez, 32, who is accused of killing Barroso during a kidnap and rape attempt nearly two years ago.

Prosecutors say Sanchez had a fetish for thong panties, which means the testimony of Barroso’s friend could be significant in bolstering the sex assault allegation.

According to court testimony, Sanchez stole undergarments from his prior sex assault victims and forced them to pose for him in sexy lingerie.

Police found a plastic bag containing victims’ clothing at his house, and some of those women have testified that he forced them to change into thong panties before he raped them.

Sanchez has pleaded guilty to numerous rape, kidnapping and burglary charges in connection with those assaults and faces the equivalent of a life prison sentence. He remains charged with murder, kidnapping and attempted rape in the Barroso case, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Barroso, 20, disappeared after leaving Gross’ house in Newbury Park in the early morning hours of July 5, 2001. Her bullet-riddled car was found abandoned about a mile from her Moorpark apartment, and her remains were found a month later in a ravine near Simi Valley.

Gross testified that Barroso was wearing white capri pants, a green T-shirt and black beaded sandals when she last saw her at 2:47 a.m. Searchers found Barroso’s body clothed in the green shirt and thong underwear. Her pants have not been found.

Defense attorneys have conceded that their client fatally shot Barroso with an assault rifle but dispute that Sanchez tried to sexually assault her.

Barroso owned thong underwear, and the defense contends that she in fact was wearing the pair found on her remains the night she died. Attorneys have suggested that Gross’ recollections are unreliable or false. They are expected to cross-examine her today.

Anticipating the defense inquiry, Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Lela Henke-Dobroth questioned Gross at length about the disputed panties.

Gross explained that Barroso spotted her pants with menstrual blood that night and laundered them at the Gross house before they went out with friends to celebrate the Fourth of July. She said she observed her friend’s undergarments at that time.

Gross acknowledged that the first time she told investigators about Barroso’s cotton underwear was more than a year after her friend’s remains were found. She testified that she continues to receive grief counseling and at times has been hospitalized for depression.

But she insisted that those factors have had no effect on her memory or the reliability of her testimony, and she denied being motivated by a desire to help punish Sanchez.