FARGO - Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. told special agents that they should be suspicious of him and that he had trouble remembering where he was the day Dru Sjodin disappeared, but he denied ever meeting her.

"The case is closing in on you," Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Dan Ahlquist told Rodriguez during one interview.

"I think you can take us to that girl," Ahlquist said.

Rodriguez, 53, a convicted sex offender from Crookston, Minn., is on trial in federal court, charged with kidnapping resulting in the death of Sjodin, 22, of Pequot Lakes, Minn. He has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors say Rodriguez abducted Sjodin at knifepoint in the parking lot of a Grand Forks shopping mall, raped and stabbed her, and left her to die in a rural area near Crookston.

Investigators interviewed Rodriguez three times on Nov. 26, 2003, four days after Sjodin disappeared and six days before Rodriguez was arrested. Audio tapes of those interviews were played at his trial Wednesday.

Rodriguez said he drove to Grand Forks on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2003, and went shopping in several stores, attended a movie, ate at a McDonald's in East Grand Forks, Minn., and returned home to Crookston. Sjodin was reported missing later that night.

When first asked what movie he saw, Rodriguez said, "The one that just came out." He then told agents it was "Once Upon a Time in Mexico."

Investigators later determined that movie was not playing in Grand Forks that day. They also said Rodriguez did not show up on surveillance tapes at McDonald's. Agents pointed out those discrepancies to Rodriguez on Nov. 26, and asked him what he would think if he were in their place.

"Be suspicious," he replied.