KEY POINTS:
CCTV cameras in the south Taranaki town of Waverley captured crucial images from the last hours of German backpacker Birgit Brauer's life, police told the High Court in New Plymouth yesterday.
What had begun as "the holiday of a lifetime" for the 28-year-old ended with her being beaten about the head with an iron bar, then stabbed through the heart, at Lucy's Gully, southwest of New Plymouth, on September 20, 2005.
Police said the images showed her alleged killer, Michael Scott Wallace, driving north after allegedly picking up Miss Brauer at Waitotara, north of Wanganui.
Wallace, whose trial began yesterday, is denying a charge of murdering Miss Brauer.
Crown prosecutor Tim Brewer said the iron-bar beating would have been enough on its own to kill Miss Brauer but Wallace likely panicked and stabbed her through the heart when disturbed by an approaching vehicle.
The motive for the attack was "probably sexual".
"After he had bashed her around the head ... he has taken her boots off and undone the top of her jeans."
Miss Brauer's body was found by a passing jogger about four hours after Wallace allegedly fled the scene.
Police said he went to Cardiff, near Stratford, where he smoked cigarettes, searched through his victim's belongings and threw a bloodied iron bar into a river. The bar was later found and DNA recovered from the weapon was that of Miss Brauer.
Mr Brewer said Miss Brauer, who arrived in New Zealand in February 2005, had been doing farm work at Wanganui in the weeks before her killing.
Her father, Knut Brauer, said in evidence read to the court that the former Dresden University student held a diploma in geography, equivalent to a master's degree here.
Mr Brauer had given his daughter a Swiss Army knife before she left for New Zealand, the country possessing "all she was looking for in nature".
She was also keen to improve her English and was collecting curious stones to take back to Germany "as a surprise for me".
Mr Brewer said Wallace had been awol from his job as a firewood cutter at Himatangi, a beach settlement about 30km from Palmerston North.
His last day at work was August 19, 2005. The following Monday - August 22 - he texted his boss to say he had his Hilux utility and would return it soon. The vehicle was reported stolen on August 26.
Wallace spent the next few weeks "drifting around the country ... out of it on drugs a lot of the time".
Mr Brewer said that Miss Brauer had to delay her departure from Wanganui by a day because of bad weather, thus her encounter with Wallace on the roadside at Waitotara was one of many "what ifs" the jury would ask itself over the next few weeks.
Wallace appeared unshaven and unkempt in photographs taken after his arrest on October 8, 2005, but he was looking more presentable as yesterday's hearing began.
He entered the dock wearing a grey tweed jacket and burgundy shirt, prompting one spectator to ask: "Is that the same man?"
Wallace's co-counsel, Patrick Mooney, in a brief opening statement, told the jury not to be too easily swayed by what was essentially circumstantial evidence against his client.
"Almost two years ago the murder of Miss Brauer was the lead story in our news ... Over a period of time, it was obvious that police had ID'd the main suspect," he said.
"We were told about a particular suspect ... we were told about a particular vehicle the police were interested in ... we were even told about a particular person."
However, jurors should not be influenced by what they heard in the media and should not automatically assume what police told them was correct.
The trial - before Justice Mark Cooper - is expected to run for about four weeks and about 90 witnesses for the prosecution are expected to be heard.
