Police at the Bavarian Motel. Photo / Abbey Palmer
A black kitchen knife found at the Oreti River belonged to the unit where the body of Azalia Wilson was found, the manager of the motel says.
Bavarian Motel manager Mit Mit Chang gave evidence yesterday at the trial of Samuel Moses Samson in the High Court at Invercargill.
The trial started on March 8 when Samson pleaded not guilty to murdering Miss Wilson on November 17, 2019.
At police's request, Chang completed an inventory of all items at the unit and she noticed a key, a kettle and knife were missing.
Crown prosecutor Mary-Jane Thomas showed her some items found at the Oreti River and in the Nissan X-Trail car connected to the case.
Among the items she recognised as belonging to the unit was the duvet, kitchen towels, a shower mat, kettle, remote control, key and a black knife which the Crown believed was the weapon used to kill Miss Azalia.
"You said that is the same knife. Is there anything in particular about the way it looks that you say that is the knife?" Thomas asked.
"Because I've been working there for so long, I can recognise the shape."
Under cross-examination, defence counsel Judith Ablett-Kerr QC asked if police told her what items they found — Chang said no.
Earlier in the day, Detective Constable Jordan Edwards told the court he found the 35cm knife inside a pillow case submerged in the river.
He was also asked to create a presentation of Ram (random access memory) data from three mobile phones — belonging to Wilson, the brother of the defendant, Daniel Samson, and an associate of Samson who was granted name suppression.
The phone attributed to Miss Wilson was observed in or near the area of the Bavarian Motel about eight times from 3.15pm on November 16 to 3.30am on November 17.
The mobile attributed to Samson's associate, who was the owner of the car connected to the case, was also observed by Det Const Edwards.
The first data collected showed the device at 2.43am on November 17 near the associate's house, then at 3.07am it was located near the Bavarian Motel area.
Several other Ram events were recorded from this device, including a voice call originating in the Gore area at 7.28am to Samson's sister Santana Watkins and another voice call originated between the Kennington and Invercargill area at 11.38am.
Under cross-examination, defence lawyer Hugo Young asked if the Ram data tracked a mobile device.
Det Const Edwards replied saying his understanding was the Ram data was an event and it was a measurement of distance between a cellphone tower and a device.
The lawyer also asked if he was tasked to request a preservation of the Facebook page of one of the trial's witnesses, who was granted name suppression.
Facebook created an archive with all the information of the specific account at the time of the request for a period of 90 days, Det Const Edwards said.
Young then asked if he found any record of a Facebook video call between the witness and Samson on November 17.
"I think the result was [that had] no data of any kind."
Under re-examination, Crown prosecutor Riki Donnelly referred to a document which was provided by the United States Department of Justice.
Det Const Edwards read part of the file which stated some data from the account had been deleted before November 18.
Justice Gerald Nation told the jury what he read "appears to be" the opinion of the US department on the information received from Facebook.
The trial continues today.
The circumstances around the death are being treated as unexplained.