The saga of the 2005 travel records of former governor Mike Easley has taken another eyebrow-raising turn, according to this story in the Raleigh News & Observer.

A state Highway Patrol captain at the center of a mystery involving former Gov. Mike Easley’s air travels told a secretary in 2006 to provide him electronic copies of flight records and then delete them, according to an internal patrol report released Friday.

Capt. Alan Melvin’s explanation for deleting the governor’s records for the previous three years, according to the report, was to “free up space on the computer.” But Diane Bumgardner, the secretary who maintained the computer and was told to delete the records, said in an interview that the computer had no space problems.

“I did what I was told to do,” Bumgardner said.