Information from a fitness tracker device has revealed the last moment the heart of a woman the Crown says was murdered by her long-time partner stopped.
Cory Jefferies in High Court Hamilton at start of his trial for the murder of Kim Richmond. Photo: RNZ / Andrew McRae
Kim Richmond, 42, went missing in July 2016 and her body was discovered in her vehicle submerged in Lake Arapuni, 10 months later.
Her partner, Cory Jefferies, 46, is on trial for her murder in the High Court in Hamilton.
Mr Jefferies has admitted causing the death of his partner, but denies murdering her.
The Crown said Mr Jefferies killed Ms Richmond in a seven minute period on a drive home from a late night at a function near their farm at Arohena in South Waikato.
Prosecutor Ross Douch said the fitbit device recorded her heart beat and while it has never been found, it automatically downloaded information to the cloud where it was later recovered.
He said it showed Ms Richmond had a settled heart beat as she and the accused started to drive home.
"Suddenly the fitbit stops recording a heart beat at about 3.43 in the morning which is around the time [their] vehicle was stopped on the highway before proceeding on."
Mr Douch said there could be a number of explanations why the heart rate would stop being recorded.
"One is the fitbit device was no longer attached to her, another was it developed a fault, the third of course is that her heart had simply stopped beating."
Mr Douch said the couple's cell phones also told a story.
Their vehicle had stopped on the road for a few minutes and then started moving again.
"It doesn't go home, it goes to the area of the boat ramp at Lake Arapuni and there is a period of pause there. The phone of Ms Richmond didn't travel on, it stayed in the area where the vehicle had stopped for those few minutes."
He said Mr Jefferies cell phone then tracked back to the farm.
"But at a speed that indicated quite clearly he wasn't in a motor vehicle but was on foot."
Mr Douch said Mr Jefferies then began his ruse and stuck to it that Kim Richmond had driven off and left him.
The Crown said Ms Richmond had developed a romantic relationship with a neighbour, Alfons Te Brake.
Mr Te Brake told the jury Mr Jefferies had discussed it with him on a few occasions and that the accused had told him he wanted her gone and had threatened to kill her.
Under cross examination by the defence, Mr Te Brake said he wasn't 100 percent sure Mr Jefferies had used the words, kill her.
Prosecutor Ross Douch said the actual cause of death has not been established as Ms Richmond's body had been in the water too long.
"When it comes to working out what occurred and why, you need to look at other circumstances and other evidence and draw conclusions from that as to what must have been in the mind of the defendant.
"His conduct afterwards makes that abundantly plain, does it not?"
Mr Jefferies' lawyer, Thomas Sutcliffe, told the court that the couples 26 year relationship had been going through difficult times but they had spent an uneventful night together at the social function.
He said on the seven minute drive home something happened between them.
"The available evidence will show you that whatever it was, it appears to have been relatively brief, matter of minutes, but whatever it was it resulted in the death of Kim Richmond."
Mr Sutcliffe said the jury can accept that Mr Jefferies is responsible for Kim Richmond's death.
"Mr Jefferies is therefore guilty of culpable homicide, in that he committed the offence of manslaughter, not murder."
The trial before Justice Fitzgerald and a jury of seven women and five men is likely to continue for most of the week.
