KEY POINTS:
Marie Davis wasn't home when her sister Amy returned there on April 6, but the doors were locked, the windows closed, and some bedding missing.
Miss Davis spent that Sunday trying to text or phone her younger sister, aged 15, but got only her voice mail message.
Marie's body and the bedding were eventually found in the Waimakariri River, north of Christchurch, and Christchurch District Court is now hearing depositions against Dean Stewart Cameron, a 38-year-old road worker, who is charged with her rape and murder.
Before the weekend Marie went missing, her sister had moved into their house to keep Marie company while her mother went on a trip to Auckland.
On Friday April 4, she dropped Marie off to stay the night with her girlfriend.
While Marie was there she received a text from Amy Davis to say that she would not be home on Saturday night as she was going to a party and would be staying over.
When Amy Davis arrived home on Sunday morning Marie wasn't there. The doors were locked and the windows closed.
She tried to find her with phone calls to her cellphone, and by telephoning her friends. She and friends who were with her decided that if they had not heard from Marie by 8pm they would go to the police.
"I knew it wasn't like her," said Amy Davis.
She said Marie's bed did not look as though it had been slept in, but she noticed a duvet and a Woolrest underlay were missing from the bed in the spare room.
An empty bottle of Canterbury Creme liqueur was found next to the bed in Marie's room.
Using photographs produced in court, Amy Davis identified a duvet, Woolrest sleeper, and pillowcases with cuts in the fabric as coming from the house.
It was two weeks before Marie's body was found. The family and friends had mounted a poster campaign around Christchurch to try to find her during that fortnight.
The hearing before Percy Acton-Adams and Nick Atkins, Justices of the Peace, will hear evidence or receive briefs from 33 crown witnesses.
- NZPA
