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Home / New Zealand

Blessie trial: Scientist said blood traipsed throughout accused's apartment

By Rob Kidd, Anna Leask
NZME.·
8 May, 2015 06:48 AM3 mins to read

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Blessie Gotingco. Photo / Supplied via Facebook

Blessie Gotingco. Photo / Supplied via Facebook

Blood was traipsed throughout the apartment of the man accused of killing Blessie Gotingco, a scientist has told the court.

ESR's Fiona Matheson spent three days at the Birkdale property and found blood in the bins, the garage, the defendant's car and most rooms of the house including the shower and the loofer inside it.

"There was blood inside the shower and it appeared to be where a person might stand to clean themselves," she said.

The Crown's case is that just before 8pm on May 24, 2014 the defendant deliberately ran Mrs Gotingco 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, before dumping the body at a nearby cemetery.

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Mrs Gotingco's body was found two days after the alleged killing and the 28-year-old defendant was charged with committing the murder on May 27.

The man charged with the murder of Blessie Gotingco. Photo / Sarah Ivey
The man charged with the murder of Blessie Gotingco. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Earlier that day police search teams and forensic scientists descended on the apartment where he lived.

Ms Matheson found various bloodied items consistent with a hurried clean up in the man's rubbish.

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There was allegedly more blood in his car - in the front and on the brake and accelerator pedals, in the back seat and on the steering wheel and indicator lever.

On the floor of the backseat the staining was heavy and blood had pooled and clotted, she said.Her findings, read to the jury, were that if Mrs Gotingco had been inside the apartment it was before any heavy bleeding took place.

There was no indication the victim was standing or had been moving around the garage, Ms Matheson said.

The officer in charge of the scene Detective Roger Taylor was cross-examined by the defendant earlier yesterday.

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01 May 02:07 AM
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04 May 06:39 AM
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05 May 12:51 AM
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Blessie trial: DNA linked to accused

11 May 04:52 AM

The defendant probed the officer about whether a fish-fileting knife covered in blood and hair had been planted in a kitchen drawer with blood deliberately transferred on to it.

But Mr Taylor was adamant that was not the case.

"I have to put it to you that blood got on to that knife during the police search of my apartment," the accused said.

"There's absolutely no way whatsoever the blood on that knife and sheath got transferred as a result of our search at that scene," Mr Taylor told the court.

Next week will see the defendant cross-examine Ms Matheson over her findings before further scientists give evidence of DNA analysis.

Then the 28-year-old will have to decide whether he takes the witness box too.

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The trial is scheduled to end next week.

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