Richmond found in foetal position in her car
Kim Richmond was found in a partial foetal position with a portion of her clothes wrapped tightly around the back of her neck on the back seat of her Ford Ranger.
The vehicle had been dumped in Lake Arapuni 11 months earlier by, the Crown allege, her jealous partner of 26 years Cory Jefferies, who is defending a charge of murder in the High Court at Hamilton this week.
Detective Constable James Walker was the officer in charge of the vehicle’s recovery from the lake and opened the door of the Ranger once it had been hauled out by a crane.
Officers first opened the left rear door of the vehicle to find Richmond’s body slightly curled up in the foetal position on the back seat, he said.
“She was facing backwards in a partial foetal position and appeared to be wearing a dark jacket.
“Most distinctively her chest and stomach area appeared to be free of clothing.”
There also appeared to be an empty plastic shopping bag like from a supermarket over Richmond’s head and torso.
He also saw tufts of hair and skin about 200mm higher up on the seat.
Once her body had been removed they also noticed how her clothing had been tightly pulled up over the back of her neck.
Doctor Rexson Tse testified that due to Richmond’s body being sub- merged in water for so long he was unable to identify any obvious external or internal injuries or any fractures or bone breaks.
Her cause of death was “undetermined” and he couldn’t find any signs of violence.
He said it was possible that she suffered a head injury, either from a punch, kick or multiple punches, a sudden impact to the head or compression to the neck.
He was also unable to get a toxicology reading due to decomposition.
The Crown closed its case at 4pm, yesterday and together with the defence will deliver its closings this morning.
Meanwhile, in a police DVD inter- view with Detective Constable Janine Post played to the High Court at Hamilton, Jefferies also said cellphone reception in the Arohena, South Waikato, area where they lived was often poor and could take a couple of days to get text messages or alerts to missed calls.
Jefferies denies a charge of murdering Richmond, his partner of 26 years.
However, he does admit causing her death but says it was unintentional.
Richmond, 42, was missing for 11 months before her body was found inside their Ford Ranger which had been dumped in Lake Arapuni.
The couple had been socialising with other locals at the Arohena Hall in South Waikato when a fight broke out in their car on the way home sometime after 3.39am.
The Crown alleges Jefferies, 46, was an enraged, jealous partner who had told various people on different occasions that he wanted to “f****** kill the bitch” and he wanted “her gone”.
Jefferies’ DVD interview from August 19 was yesterday played to the court.
He said she didn’t wear her Fitbit as often as she used to and wasn’t sure if she was wearing it the night she disappeared as she was wearing a jacket. “She used to wear it all the time when she first got it but it petered out a bit.”
Jefferies revealed he had also cheated on his partner by kissing another woman at a party at their home about two years earlier.
The Crown say it was a combination of tracking from the couple’s cellphones and Richmond’s Fitbit which helped them close in on who was responsible.
Her Fitbit recorded a period of elevated heartbeat between 3.30am and 3.39am as the couple helped tidy the hall before they set off and it calmed down. Her last recorded heartbeat was at 3.43am.
After stopping on the side of the road, about 120m from home, cellphone records helped detectives track Jefferies’ phone as it travelled to Lake Arapuni before it headed back home.