Scientist focuses on alleged killer weapon

Cary Grant Thurgood. Photo / Sarah Ivey

A weapon police believe was used to kill a mother was found in two pieces. One was in the backyard of her estranged partner. The other was found in a rubbish bag, dumped in a skip, behind the Irish pub where he worked.

Cary Grant Thurgood, 43, has been charged with Leanne Kingston's murder and is on trial in the High Court at Auckland. He has pleaded not guilty.

Ms Kingston, 39, was found by her sister stabbed and beaten in August last year. She was lying on her side on the linoleum floor of her toilet beneath a broken window.

The weapon was a garden grubber. It had a broken, blood-stained handle on which ESR scientists found traces of Ms Kingston's DNA.

ESR forensic scientist Dianne Crenfeldt said she was certain the handle and blade of the grubber were joined at one stage.

Thurgood's lawyer Peter Kaye said the two pieces of the grubber were a different colour and the splinters of wood at the break did not match up.

"Could it be a completely different piece of wood?" Mr Kaye asked.

Ms Crenfeldt responded: "In my experience and training, I am confident that they were joined."

Ms Crenfeldt said the disparities of the break could be explained by one piece being used after the break while the other was not.

Dr Sally Coulson ran tests on the gib wall of Ms Kingston's toilet and found indentations that were likely to have been put there with the handle of the grubber. Paint residue on the handle matched the three layers of paint found on the toilet wall.

The grubber handle was found in a skip behind Finn McCool's Irish bar where Thurgood worked as a chef.

Other items in the rubbish bag included a knife, bloody track pants, underwear with a semen stain, a jacket, sweatshirt and a beanie that the Crown says has crudely cut eyeholes.

Dr Coulson said she found glass embedded in the clothing which matched the glass found in Ms Kingston's toilet. She said there was a "strong suggestion" the person wearing the beanie and other items of clothing was near the window when it broke. The trial continues.