The mutilated body of an Auckland mother of three was found in a suburban cemetery thanks to GPS monitoring, a court has been told.
The trial for the 27-year-old man accused of the murder of Blessie Gotingco began in the High Court at Auckland yesterday.
The Crown alleges on the evening of May 24 last year, the defendant ran down Mrs Gotingco in his car and broke her leg, before throwing the injured woman into the vehicle and driving her to his home nearby where he raped her then stabbed her to death.
Two days later, police found the body in a scrub area of Eskdale Cemetery but it was a hunch that led them there.
Investigators looked into the defendant as a person of interest, who at the time was being monitored via a GPS anklet and forced to serve a curfew.
Electronic data allegedly showed he had been driving around the North Shore on the evening of Mrs Gotingco's disappearance and only a couple of hours before she was due home he had visited the graveyard. The same device showed he had revisited the area early in the morning the following day and officers sent there finally made the grisly discovery.
Crown prosecutor Michael Walker said the two cemetery visits were important because they showed "the defendant was planning to kill someone".
"His trip to the cemetery was scoping out where to dump the body."
Mrs Gotingco was last seen leaving her workplace, Tower Insurance in the CBD, about 7pm on May 24.
She would have got a lift home from a friend but she volunteered to do some overtime, which meant she had to take a bus back to Birkdale.
Mr Walker said she was making the five-minute walk home down Salisbury Rd when the defendant deliberately drove over the kerb, on to the footpath and ran her down.
Mr Walker said the impact of the defendant's car broke her left leg in two places and caused significant damage to his bonnet and windscreen.
The man scooped up the injured woman and made the short drive home.
"He parked the car in the downstairs garage of the apartment complex he lived in and, after arriving at his house, he raped Mrs Gotingco," Mr Walker said.
"The small, petite woman, already injured from the first assault, stood no chance against the defendant armed with a knife."
It is alleged the defendant slit the victim's throat and then stabbed her numerous times.
When the police went to the defendant's address they found a knife, testing of which allegedly showed traces of the victim's blood.
The Crown said a number of her personal items, including her handbag, were also found buried in the suspect's garden.
Bloodied towels and mop heads were found in a wheelie bin too, Mr Walker said.
A swab taken from the victim's body turned up a semen sample, which was later tested by ESR scientists. Mr Walker said it provided "extremely strong scientific support" to suggest the defendant had raped Mrs Gotingco.
The defendant's lawyer, Chris Wilkinson-Smith, will open the defence case today.
The trial is scheduled to last three weeks.
