Murder accused seen at river

Birgit Brauer

In the hours after Birgit Brauer's murder, the man accused of killing her was seen at a river where the alleged murder weapon was later found.

Three days later he was also seen at Lake Rotokauri, where the dead woman's backpacks were eventually found.

Michael Scott Wallace is charged with killing Ms Brauer on September 20 last year. The 44-year-old is before the New Plymouth District Court for a depositions hearing to decide if he will stand trial.

Ms Brauer's body was found in bush at Lucys Gully at 5pm by a man out running with his dog. At roughly the same time, a farmer and her daughter were on their way to look at a water pump on their farm in Cardiff when they saw a grey Toyota Hilux.

The woman told the court she and her 11-year-old daughter saw a man, alleged to be Wallace, sitting in the driver's seat.

"He put his hand up and waved. I waved back," the woman said.

The girl said the man, who wore a black beanie, bent down as though he was lighting a cigarette. She and her mother then went into the pumphouse. When they finished there they went for a walk along the nearby riverbed, where they noticed fresh prints. They looked as though they came from workboots.

When they headed back up the track, the girl said, the man got out of the Toyota.

"He walked about halfway down the track and he said, 'Have I left my towel down there?' I said, 'No, it's hanging on your ute. It's hanging on the bullbars'."

The girl said the man said something to the effect of, 'Oh yeah, thanks', and walked back to his ute. He wore workboots. The ute matched the description of the one Ms Brauer was seen getting into earlier that morning and the description of the ute seen at Lucys Gully around the time she was murdered.

The mother said she was about 90 per cent sure that Wallace was the man she saw that day.

Another witness, Hayley MacKintosh, said she was 100 per cent sure she saw Wallace sitting in a ute at Lake Rotokauri three days later.

Ms MacKintosh said Wallace, who was wearing a black beanie, was parked in the carpark. He was drinking a beer and reading a newspaper when she arrived in a car with a friend. On the floor of the ute Ms MacKintosh saw a backpack which Wallace later lifted on to the passenger seat.

Police later found Ms Brauer's backpacks near the edge of the lake. Inside one of her packs was a diary, which the court heard earlier this week contained Wallace's fingerprints. It also contained a cellphone with no battery.

Police diver Constable Colin Odell was part of a team which searched the Waingongoro River at the bottom of the farm of the farmer with the 11-year-old. He discovered a round metal bar which police say was used to cause Ms Brauer's extensive head injuries.

Near the pumphouse police also located a number of Ms Brauer's belongings including a cellphone battery that matched the phone. A pile of cigarette butts was also found on the ground.

Crown prosecutor Tim Brewer told the court at the start of the depositions hearing that several of those butts had Wallace's DNA on them.