"She is too beautiful to touch."
That's what murder-accused Cory Jefferies told police when they first asked him if he'd hurt his partner, Kim Richmond.
He's since admitted he killed her, but he told police a different story in the weeks after she went missing.
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Almost three weeks after Ms Richmond disappeared, her partner of 26 years spoke to police denying ever threatening or hurting her.
"I'm not that sort of person to go around beating people up," he'd said.
However, he went on to reveal that on one occasion, he did drag her by the arm around their home.
"Other than that, nah, never... She's too beautiful to touch," he said.
Now he's on trial for her murder. Jefferies has this week admitted killing her, but his lawyer says there was no murderous intent.
The mother of three went missing on July 31, 2016 after watching a rugby game with her partner and other locals at the town hall.
Jeffries told police at the time there had been a brief argument when he changed the music playing in the ute on the way home.
When asked how their three young children were coping with their mother's disappearance, he began to cry.
It was almost a year later that her body was recovered by police, submerged underwater in her ute at Lake Arapuni.
Detective James Walker told the court "one of the most distinctive things I first saw when I first saw Ms Richmond was the absence of clothing on the front of her torso".
"Once the body had been removed from the backseat, I could observe clothing that was pulled tightly across the back of her neck."
Due to the time Ms Richmond spent underwater, pathologists are unable to determine the exact cause of the 42-year-old's death. They say there were no fractures or signs of blunt trauma. The pathologist in charge says drowning cannot be ruled out.
The prosecution is expected to close its case against Jefferies on Thursday.
Newshub.
