Cops posed as home buyers to get DNA
Police went undercover as potential home buyers to obtain DNA belonging to murder suspect Sainey Marong.
Marong, 33, 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 in the High Court at Christchurch yesterday that she and another police officer attended an open home at a flat where Marong lived on Barlow St, Riccarton, on May 22.
Pihana and the 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
"You don't believe that you're going to come across a body."
Maxwell Ferris
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 the fire out with his boot, while another man, Maxwell Ferris, arrived and asked if he needed a hand.
Ferris called emergency services, then put a hand on 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 bottle of wine.
The Crown said earlier Marong’s DNA was on the lighter.
Duckmanton’s minder, Terrence McGowan, told the court he met Duckmanton as he drove home from the movies one night.
‘‘She was an amazing person. We swapped phone numbers and she would ring me if she wanted to go out at night.’’
On May 14, 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.
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.