By Charlotte Shipman
Police giving evidence in the Scott Guy murder trial have explained how they narrowed down the suspects and zeroed in on his brother in law, Ewen Macdonald.
But they found it difficult to investigate him without tipping him off.
When Mr Guy was killed, police began an extensive investigation with 60 persons of and eventually whittled it down to just one person.
However Palmerston North detective sergeant David Thompson says it was hard.
“He was so entwined in the family and the farm environment we couldn't make enquires about some things because it would become apparent to him.”
In particular police didn't want Macdonald to know they were looking for a pair of size nine Proline diving boots he owned, because distinctive impressions from the same kind of boot were found around Mr Guy's body.
The arrest came after an admission from a Manawatu man that 18 months before the murder, he and Macdonald had painted offensive graffiti on Mr Guy and his wife Kylee Guy's house and taken to the inside of it with a splitting axe.
Together the two men had also set fire to the old farm house which was there before the new house was built.
Police believed the damage was linked to the murder.
“It was crucial that we need to find the person responsible for that,” Mr Thompson says.
“And equally the issues on the farm and other factors were leading us to look at Ewen Macdonald.”
But initially, Macdonald wanted police to look somewhere else.
He told police some of Mr and Mrs Guy’s chocolate labrador puppies were missing from the old cowshed next to their house.
Police say Macdonald tried to make the murder look like a botched burglary and they spent three months investigating all the recent thefts in the area, then ruled it out.
“We looked at extended family, drugs, burglaries, criminal associations extra marital affairs,” Mr Thompson says. “All those enquiries came to zero.”
Macdonald also told police he wondered if it was a case of mistaken identity, that perhaps the killer was really after him because he'd been involved with poaching.
3 News
source: newshub archive
