Hours before Casey Chadwick’s body was discovered in a closet at her Norwich apartment on June 15, 2015, her best friend sent her a haunting text.

“I told you, after every death there’s rain,” Crysta Wydra wrote. She was referring to the weather and to the death of another friend’s fiance two days earlier in a motorcycle crash, according to testimony Thursday in New London Superior Court.

Prosecutor David J. Smith called Wydra to the witness stand for the second time at the murder trial of Jean Jacques to refute the testimony of a neighbor of Chadwick. The neighbor, Jennifer Scherp, had testified for the defense Wednesday that she saw Wydra at Chadwick’s apartment on Spaulding Street at 9 p.m. on June 14.

Jacques, 41, is accused of fatally stabbing Chadwick and was the last person to see her, according to testimony. Both the state and defense rested on Thursday, though the defense asked for permission to reopen testimony Friday if necessary. The attorneys then are expected to deliver closing arguments. The 12-member jury will begin deliberating after receiving instructions from Judge Barbara Bailey Jongbloed.

Wydra testified that she was going to visit Chadwick on June 14 but instead went to New London to comfort her friend Monaris Rivera, whose fiance, Bladimir Concepcion, had died the day before in a motorcycle crash on Colman Street in New London. At 7:26 p.m., Wydra texted Chadwick a photograph from the crash site, where family members and friends of Concepcion had gathered to light candles. The prosecutor put the text message on the projector while Wydra testified.

Rivera, called to the witness stand next, testified that Wydra had spent the night with her, waking Rivera up several times because she was crying in her sleep. She said Wydra left on the afternoon of June 15 after learning that Chadwick was missing.

Defense attorney Sebastian DeSantis also elicited testimony from Capt. Daniel Daugherty, intelligence coordinator at the Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Institution, who produced records confirming that Jacques and jailhouse informant Tywan Jenkins were housed together twice at the Montville prison. Jenkins has testified that Jacques admitted to killing Chadwick and told him he had hidden her cellphone and drugs in the bathroom wall at his apartment. The police said that as a result of the information from Jenkins, they re-searched Jacques’ apartment and found the items.

k.florin@theday.com