Jennifer Daugherty never received an answer to her repeated questions about why she was beaten, tortured and set to be killed by a group of Greensburg roommates, including several she considered friends and one she was interested in romantically, according to one of her attackers.Amber Meidinger, of the six roommates convicted of Daugherty’s murder, “She was friendly, sweet and trusting,” said of Daugherty.The group went through her purse, stole money, gift cards and her cell phone; poured liquids into her bag; hit her on the head with filled soda bottles, cut her hair, painted her face with nail polish and dumped liquid and spices on her head. Meidinger said she and Angela Marinucci took turns violently hitting Daugherty with a metal towel rack.Daugherty was then stripped naked and hidden away in an attic while Smyrnes’ former roommate visited and then was moved to a bedroom by Knight.“I opened the door and saw Jennifer on the floor. Melvin was on top of her, she had a sock in her mouth and he was holding her down. He was raping her,” Meidinger testified.Smyrnes then called the first of four “family meetings” to decide how to deal with Daugherty before the group went to sleep.The next morning, Daugherty tried to escape before she was stopped and punished, Meidinger testified. The group hit her with several items then forced her to drink three different concoctions that contained urine, feces, bleach, cigarette ash and crushed pills.The group met again and voted to kill Daugherty, Meidinger testified.She said Smyrnes and Knight tied her up with Christmas lights.Smyrnes then gave a steak knife to Knight, who asked if Daugherty was ready to die then repeatedly stabbed her in the side and chest and slashed her throat. Smyrnes was given the knife and continued the attack, Meidinger told jurors.It was then decided to discard Daugherty in a trash can that was left out in a nearby school parking lot to be discovered.

Denise Murphy on Tuesday told jurors that her daughter, mentally disabled as a child, wanted to be a writer, a chef and an auto mechanic. She sought to live on her own, the mother said. Still, she asked for permission to stay the night with friends in Greensburg — a trip from which she would never return.On the witness stand, Murphy read her daughter’s final note, written out on the back of an envelope: “Mom, I hope you have a good day at work and I love you very much. Love, Jennifer.”