Police could not identify the source of footprints on the steps outside the house where Joanne McCarthy was beaten to death, a jury heard yesterday.
Detective Angela Grace told the Travis Burns' murder trial that despite extensive inquiries, officers had never been able to account for the footprints on steps leading to the deck of the house in Whangaparaoa.
But in his opening address on Monday, Simon Moore, the Crown Solicitor for Auckland, told the High Court at Auckland that those prints were unconnected with the killing.
Later in the trial, forensic scientist Marnix Kelderman will say how he believes the prints were formed and how old they were.
Mr Kelderman will also give evidence of bloody footprints at the house that the prosecution says were made by Rivergum Classic boots belonging to Burns.
Yesterday, Mr Kelderman told crown prosecutor Christine Gordon about blood spattered at the house.
Blood on a wall had been coughed or sneezed while Joanne McCarthy was sitting on the floor.
Mr Kelderman was unable to say whether that was caused by her being kicked in the chest.
Burns, aged 32, is accused of murdering the 33-year-old kindergarten teacher, whose battered body was found submerged in a bath of water on November 12, 1998.
The Crown alleges that she was murdered as she prepared lunch for her young son and the child of a friend.
Footprints a mystery to police
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