Police posed as home buyers to get DNA
Police went undercover as potential home buyers to obtain DNA belonging to murder suspect Sainey Marong.
Marong is on trial in the High Court at Christchurch accused of murdering Renee Duckmanton on May 14, 2016.
The 22-year-old’s half-naked and badly burnt body was found at a scrub fire on the side of a road near Rakaia about 7.30pm the next day.
Constable Maania Pihana told jurors yesterday that she and another police officer attended an open home at a flat where Marong lived in Riccarton on May 22.
Pihana and a fellow police officer went undercover as a couple looking to buy the home. Pihana, carrying a black handbag with disposable gloves and plastic evidence bags, signed her first name on the register with her cellphone number.
Pihana said they were tasked to get any items belonging to Marong that DNA could be extracted from without alerting him he was a person of interest.
Marong was not home at the time of the open home.
Pihana and her colleague eventually identified Marong’s bedroom where they found a document with Marong’s name on it. They took a black comb and a black NYPD cap for forensic testing.
Earlier yesterday, the court heard from two Rakaia residents who found Duckmanton’s body.
Stewart Johnston told the court that he was driving along Main Rakaia Rd about 7pm on May 15 when he noticed a scrub fire on the side of the road.
He walked over and noticed a car on the opposite side of the road. A man was sitting inside and talking on a cellphone.
Johnston assumed the man was talking to the fire service, so started to head home but then thought it was odd someone would set a fire on the side of a road with no farmer in sight.
He went back but the car was gone.
Johnston started trying to stamp out the fire with his boot, while another man, Maxwell Ferris, arrived and asked if he needed a hand.
‘‘I said it might pay to ring the fire brigade.’’
Ferris called services, then put Johnston’s shoulder.
‘‘He said ‘whatever you do, don’t take another step. That’s when I noticed the young girl’s body there,’’ Johnston said.
Ferris cried as he told the court he initially thought Duckmanton was a mannequin.
‘‘You don’t believe that you’re going to come across a body.’’
It was not until he later saw a firefighter check for a pulse that he realised it was a body.
Johnston said the body, later identified as Duckmanton, was badly burnt and lying on the grass. He saw a cigarette lighter on the edge of the road, along with some work gloves and an empty wine bottle.
The Crown said Marong’s DNA was on the lighter.
Detective Sergeant Grant Collins, emergency a hand on who was in charge of analysing Duckmanton’s phone records, said data taken from cell towers showed the 22-year-old received a text from her minder, Terrence McGowan, about 8.30pm on May 14.
Duckmanton’s phone then travelled towards the central city, ending up near Manchester and Peterborough streets.
About 9.30pm, the phone connected with a tower on Division St, Riccarton, when Duckmanton spoke with her boyfriend, Sam Doak, several times.
Doak told the court on Monday: ‘‘She said to me she was with the guy who had locked the doors on her and she’d walked home from in a job she’d done three weeks ago.’’
He asked if she felt safe and she said she did.
‘‘I said ‘I love you’, she said ‘I love you’ [and] that was it.’’
CCTV showed Marong withdrew $300 from an ASB ATM while Duckmanton was talking to Doak.
Collins said Duckmanton’s phone then headed towards Yaldhurst and ended up in Templeton.
At 10.24pm, Doak texted Duckmanton asking her to call him. He tried calling her, but was diverted to voicemail.
He received a text from Duckmanton’s phone a minute later saying ‘‘coming babe’’.
The phone did not connect with another site after that text.
McGowan earlier told the court he met Duckmanton as he drove home from the movies one night.
‘‘I stopped and I talked to her on a whim, we got on really well.
‘‘She was an amazing person. We swapped phone numbers and she would ring me if she wanted to go out at night. Sometimes I would say yes if I wasn’t busy, sometimes I’d say no.’’
On May 14,, Duckmanton texted McGowan asking if he could take her to work.
He dropped her off at her usual spot and saw her stand first at a corner, then cross the road and head towards Peterborough St where his view of her became obstructed by a tree.
Duckmanton texted him at 9.20pm to say she was on a job and would be an hour. It was the last text she sent him.
The Crown alleged Marong was the person who picked her up.
McGowan sat in the car and listened to music while he waited for Duckmanton to return.
About an hour later, he started receiving messages from Doak, who had not heard from Duckmanton and was getting worried.
McGowan told him she was due back any minute and he would tell her to call him.
McGowan waited in his car until about 2am before heading home. He dropped Duckmanton’s handbag off at Bowenvale Ave the following day.
CCTV footage showed Marong drove by in a silver Audi several times before picking up Duckmanton.
Marong’s defence cited ‘‘mental imbalance’’ in their brief opening on Monday.
The Crown is expected to call evidence from more than 80 witnesses in the three-week trial before Justice Cameron Mander.