Two cars that were sighted by a farm hand on the morning of Scott Guy’s murder, and on the same road, have never been identified, police have revealed.
A man smelling of alcohol and cigarettes, who a neighbour says was asking after Mr Guy before the murder, also remains unidentified.
Police are telling the court more details from their investigation into the death of Feilding farmer Mr Guy, on the eighth day of the murder trial of his brother-in-law and business partner Ewen Macdonald.
Macdonald is accused of murdering Mr Guy at the end of his rural Feilding driveway on July 8, 2010. He denies the charge.
Detective sergeant David Thompson is on the stand at the High Court in Wellington .
Under cross-examination by defence lawyer Peter Coles, Mr Thompson revealed that two cars that had been sighted on the morning of July 8 had not been located.
Farm hand Matthew Ireland told the court earlier this week that he saw the cars, one as he drove down Aorangi Rd and one as he turned into the farm driveway which he described as a four-door sedan.
“As I was turning into the tanker track…I didn’t take much notice…it did sound like a boy racer car, it had a bit of a muffler to it”, he said on Monday.
But today, Mr Thompson said even after a nationwide publicity campaign, no one came forward having either seen the cars or driven them.
He also said the man who had turned up at Mr Guy’s neighbour David Berry’s house asking after him had never been found.
Last week, Mr Berry described the man as “stinking of alcohol and cigarettes”.
“There certainly was an inquiry”, says Mr Thompson.
Cannabis growing on farm
Mr Thompson says police received information that Mr Guy may have been murdered after he found cannabis growing on his farm.
He says cannabis was found in two locations on the farm – two small seedlings in a farm cottage and some plants on a riverbank near the farm boundary.
He says they were small amounts of cannabis and were not significant compared with other plantations in the area.
Mr Thompson says those responsible were ruled out as murder suspects in the case.
Botched puppy burglary
The possibility that Mr Guy was killed as a result of a botched puppy burglary was also raised by Mr Thompson.
There were a number of chocolate Labrador puppies in an old farm shed next to Mr Guy’s house. Three went missing in the period Mr Guy was murdered.
“From the scene examination, it was highly unlikely it was a burglary gone wrong,” he told the court.
It was unlikely, he says, because the shed provided the perfect look out point to the house and a burglar would have seen Mr Guy leave the house and get into his ute.
“A burglar’s main aim is to be undetected,” he says, adding that nothing else was missing from the shed or from Mr Guy’s ute.
Mr Thompson also revealed that there were 60 people on a ‘persons of interest list’ which police collated in their investigation.
The list was put together from police investigations, the 0800 hotline Crimestoppers and information from members in the criminal fraternity.
The police are revealing to the court the process they went through that led them to lay charges on Macdonald for the murder.
The trial continues.
3 News
source: newshub archive
