Could Amos Mortier have been murdered and fed to pigs?

A story published in Thursday's Isthmus, citing federal grand jury testimony related to Mortier's disappearance on Nov. 8, 2004, quotes a Dane County Jail inmate as saying that another man confessed to him that he stabbed Mortier during an argument and fed him to pigs at a farm near Poynette.

But Fitchburg police said they checked out the story long ago and found that it wasn't credible.

"We haven't found any credibility to any of the statements," said Lt. Todd Stetzer. "I can say that there was not anything presented in the article that we weren't aware of. Everything's been checked out."

The inmate and the alleged confessor are not named in the Isthmus story.

The grand jury testimony was linked to a marijuana distribution scheme involving Mortier for which three people with Madison ties have been sent to prison. Two other men, Jacob Stadfeld and Brent Delzer, are still awaiting a trial for their alleged roles in the marijuana distribution scheme.

Grand jury testimony is generally secret, but the secrecy ends when transcripts are turned over to defense attorneys after criminal charges are filed, unless a judge has ordered that it remain secret, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil said. No such order exists in this case, he said.

Investigators have long suspected a connection between Mortier's disappearance on Nov. 8, 2004, and an $80,000 debt that Stadfeld owed to Mortier, who was a local distributor of Canadian marijuana that was smuggled into the U.S. and brought to Madison by courier.

Stetzer, whose department did not comment for Isthmus, said the inmate's story was thoroughly checked out, as have all the tips the department has received about Mortier's disappearance. He declined to say what steps were taken.

The pig scenario, however, appears to be somewhat unlikely. Dr. John Howard, president of the National Association of Medical Examiners and co-medical examiner for Spokane County in Washington, said he has heard of only one documented case of pigs being used to dispose of a body. Canadian pig farmer and serial killer Robert Pickton fed some of his victims to his pigs, according to testimony at his trial in 2007.

Animal scavenging is common, Howard said, but it is likely that bone would be left behind unless further broken down.

"It's not that (bodies) completely disappear," he said.

The Isthmus story notes that the inmate, who testified before the grand jury, failed to pass a polygraph test.

But Mortier's mother, Margie Milutinovich, is skeptical that police have investigated the alleged confessor as thoroughly as they have investigated others that they believe to be suspects in the case. She offered Thursday to pay for another polygraph test for the inmate to double-check the results of his first test.

She also wants to know more specifically what police did to investigate the alleged confessor.

"If (police) did check him out thoroughly, bring it forth," she said. "What did they do?"