KEY POINTS:
Investigators found no DNA or other samples belonging to slain German hitchhiker Birgit Brauer in the vehicle in which she allegedly spent the last hours of her life, a jury heard yesterday.
Forensic scientist Angelica Edgeley told the High Court at New Plymouth that no blood, hair, fingerprints or fibres were found in the Toyota Hilux Miss Brauer's alleged killer, Michael Scott Wallace, was known to be driving at the time of the September 20, 2005, killing.
Police say Wallace, a firewood cutter from Himatangi, near Palmerston North, murdered Miss Brauer after picking her up as she hitchhiked between Wanganui and New Plymouth.
Wallace, 46, denies the charges.
It is alleged that after picking his victim up at Waitotara, north of Wanganui, Wallace drove the 28-year-old to Lucys Gully, southwest of New Plymouth.
Police say that is where the lethal attack occurred.
The Crown says the attack was sexually motivated, as Miss Brauer's boots had been removed and her pants partly undone.
Ms Edgeley told the court she believed from an examination of blood found on the roadside at Lucys Gully that Miss Brauer had been bashed there, then dragged into the bush.
"The condition of her clothing, the relatively clean condition of her boots, except on the side of one boot, and the grazes and scratches, lead me to the opinion that it is very likely she had been dragged to that position by the feet."
Ms Brauer was bashed nine times about the head, allegedly with an iron bar.
Prosecutors say Wallace stabbed Miss Brauer once through the heart when he was disturbed while in the bush.
However, Ms Edgeley accepted a suggestion by Wallace's lawyer, Susan Hughes, QC, that Miss Brauer could have been attacked somewhere else, then taken to Lucys Gully.
The blood staining on the roadside could have indicated that the site was simply a "trans-shipment" site for the body.
Three prosecution witnesses - a forensic scientist and two police detectives - remain to be called this morning.
The trial, before Justice Mark Cooper, could finish by the end of the week.