CAMBRIDGE - In their opening statements at Middlesex Superior Court on Wednesday, lawyers stressed the depth of the police investigation that led to the arrest of Michael Bizanowicz in the killings of two West Woburn residents.

Middlesex Asst. District Attorney Adrienne Lynch told the jury a thorough probe by state and Woburn police led a trail to Bizanowicz, 44, of Lowell, as the suspect in the murders of Joanne Presti, 34, and her 12-year-old daughter, Alyssa, on Jan. 5, 2004, in their Totman Drive home.

Lynch said DNA evidence collected from Joanne Presti and matched to a sample from the suspect establishes within "one-quadrillionth of a percentage" the likelihood that "Michael Bizanowicz, and no one else, as the person responsible" for the murders.

Defense counsel Stanley Norkunas presented an opposing point of view, telling the jury police stopped following other leads once they targeted Bizanowicz as the focus of the investigation.

"The police talked to a lot of people, and you're going to know what they did, or more realistically, what they did not do, with that information," said Norkunas.

He also said the DNA evidence suggests not that Bizanowicz killed Joanne Presti, but rather that he was involved in consensual sexual relations with her.

In addition to two counts of first degree murder, Bizanowicz is also charged with the aggravated rape of Joanne Presti.

Witness testimony was expected to begin this morning.

"Brutal" double murder

In her stirring 40-minute opening statement, Lynch described in graphic detail the "brutal" rape and murder of Joanne Presti, and the subsequent killing of Alyssa, a Joyce Middle School student who was "literally trapped and cornered" in her own bedroom by her attacker, but put up a fight before she was stabbed to death.

"She did not go easily," said Lynch.

Joanne and Alyssa Presti, along with Joanne's 2 1/2-year-old son, moved to their Totman Drive apartment the previous November, but had previously lived for seven years at another address on the same street, according to Lynch.

Lynch called Joanne Presti a "stay-at-home mom who was very dedicated to her children," including another son who at the time lived with his father in Revere.

Lynch linked Bizanowicz to the Prestis through a mutual friend, Bobbi Jo Miller, a Totman Drive neighbor who dated the suspect and is the mother of Bizanowicz's daughter.

It was Miller, Lynch said, who first suspected something was wrong at the Presti home on Jan. 7, 2004, when she saw the blinds drawn and evidence that Joanne's minivan had not been moved in days.

Miller called Joanne Presti's parents in Billerica, who came to the apartment and discovered the bodies of their daughter and granddaughter, along with the toddler, who had been by himself for at least two days. (The boy was dehydrated and hungry, but had not been harmed as a result of the attacks on his mother and sister, Lynch noted.)

Police were called, and at that point the home was treated as a crime scene.

"The one and only goal was to identify the person responsible," said Lynch. "Each and every room was meticulously processed."

The bodies, she said, were "carefully examined" and led police to find a piece of rope that was apparently used to bind Joanne Presti's wrists, along with DNA evidence from both Joanne, and Alyssa's fingernails.

Police, she noted, found a fingerprint that established another Totman Drive resident as a possible suspect, but he was exonerated on Jan. 14 when there was no DNA match.

The father of the 2 1/2-year-old was also questioned, but he was dismissed as a possible suspect when he was placed in Delaware and Pennsylvania at the time of the murders.

What led police to Bizanowicz initially was the discovery of three undeveloped rolls of film in the Prestis' house, Lynch said. The police had them developed and discovered an image of Bizanowicz, an apprentice electrician who had been to the Presti home once "to set up cable."

Bizanowicz voluntarily went to Lowell Police headquarters for an interview, where he denied ever having a sexual relationship with Joanne Presti, Lynch said.

He also told police, according to Lynch, that he was at home watching television on the entire weekend and into Monday, Jan. 5, when after being "up all night talking" to Miller, he said he called in sick to work, and claimed having no visitors.

When investigators came up with a DNA match to Bizanowicz "that exceeded the population of the world," he was arrested and his home and possessions were searched.

Police found an apparent suicide note from Bizanowicz dated Jan. 5 to his daughter, to whom "he accurately predicted that people would say 'Dad did bad things,'" according to Lynch.

Also found in Bizanowicz's truck was a rope that when tested by a chemist had an exact match to the piece of rope found on Joanne Presti's wrist.

DNA tests of Alyssa Presti's fingernails were also tested and "matched Michael Bizanowicz's male profile," according to Lynch.

"Not reliable evidence"

In more subdued opening remarks that lasted 15 minutes, Norkunas focused on leads that he said were not followed once Bizanowicz was identified as the suspect.

"The investigation ceased on January 16, 2004," said Norkunas, referring to the day of his client's arrest.

Specifically, Norkunas referred to "a footprint of a boot" found in Alyssa's bedroom that had no evidentiary link to his client.

Norkunas noted investigators "pulled up the entire kitchen floor and part of the bathroom" of Bizanowicz's apartment, but could not come up with a match to the "bootprint" at the murder scene.

He said that leads to the Totman Drive neighbor who was initially considered a suspect were not followed, particularly the DNA samples, with which police "didn't do the same type of assessment" as they did for Bizanowicz's samples.

"The DNA only shows you (Joanne Presti) and Michael Bizanowicz had consensual sex, that's all," Norkunas said.

He also said some of the evidence police used to implicate Bizanowicz was "not reliable." The apparent suicide note, Norkunas said Bizanowicz - a level 3 sex offender - "was depressed," and may have been referring to other incidents in the past.

As for his failure to show up for work on Monday, Jan. 5, Norkunas said "that happened a lot," due to the nature of his client's arrangement with his employer, and should not be considered an implication of murder.