In the house of the man accused of killing Blessie Gotingco, police found a knife that looked "out of place".
Detective Roger Taylor found the large fish-fileting knife sheathed in the second drawer down in the kitchen of the Birkdale apartment, after a dawn raid on May 27, 2014.
On closer inspection he found blood and hair on the blade.
A 28-year-old man has been on trial in the High Court at Auckland since last week accused of Mrs Gotingco's rape and murder.
He has name suppression, though his image is allowed to be published.
The man charged with the murder of Blessie Gotingco. Photo / Sarah Ivey
The Crown says just before 8pm on May 24 the defendant deliberately ran her down in his car as she walked home along Salisbury Rd from work.
It is alleged he then bundled her into his silver BMW and took her back to his home where he raped her, slit her throat and stabbed her to death.
The officer in charge of the scene at the defendant's house Mr Taylor said his eye was drawn to the black-and-red-handled weapon, which he found among some kitchen knives.
"Initially I thought it looked out of place and on inspecting it, I located what appeared to be blood and hair or fibres about the sheath and knife," he said.
A broom with blood on its handle was also found, as was a mop with the sponge head removed.The witness told the jury of other objects of interest that were turned up outside the house by a specialist search team.
A white jacket, allegedly belonging to Mrs Gotingco, was presented to the court as an exhibit after it was found in the defendant's garden.And there was also reference to her handbag being found in a bush.
The defendant was on an 8pm to 6am curfew - monitored by Corrections via an anklet - at the time and Dr John Donaldson reviewed GPS data which he said put the defendant at the cemetery the victim's body was found both before and after the alleged murder.
Just before 6pm, co-ordinates placed the murder accused around the Eskdale Cemetery for about 15 minutes, before he allegedly drove up and down Salisbury Rd.
He returned home for more than an hour before again driving down the street in Birkdale - the device putting him there at the time Mrs Gotingco was allegedly struck.
The defendant returned home just before his curfew but Dr Donaldson said he was back at the cemetery at 6.18am the following morning for 20 minutes.
By 6.44am he was in his apartment again.
Amicus of the court Chris Wilkinson-Smith questioned the reliability of the GPS data, which at times had a margin of error of up to 100 metres.
Dr Donaldson said he was not in court to vouch for the accuracy of the data supplied to him, only to plot it on a map.
