A blood-stained piece of wood found near the body of Radica Zafirovska had been fashioned into a ‘timber stake’ with a pointed end and a handle, a court has heard.
Simona Zafirovska, 21, is accused of using the weapon to murder her mother, whose bloodied body was found at her Brisbane home at The Gap on October 28, 2016.
She was committed on Wednesday in Brisbane Magistrates Court to stand trial for the crime.
Simona Zafirovska, 21, is accused of using a wooden stake to murder her mother
Radica Zafirovska’s body was found lying in her Brisbane home, the wooden stake used to kill her left meters away
Forensic co-ordinator Inspector David Keating told the court a piece of wood almost one metre long and seven centimetres wide was found in the bedroom near Ms Zafirovska’s body.
He said the alleged weapon looked ‘like a timber stake’, and that it had some blood on it.
Zafirovska is accused of striking her 56-year-old mother up to 20 times with the weapon.
There was also extensive blood spatter on the bedroom walls, and minute traces of blood were found in the kitchen and bathroom sinks, as well as on the tiled foyer, the court heard.
Zafirovska is accused of striking her 56-year-old mother up to 20 times with the weapon.
The blood found on the stake was still wet so forensic police have ruled out that the person had tried to clean it aftwerwards
Insp Keating said he couldn’t rule out whether the weapon had been washed following the attack.
However, forensic scientist Sergeant Melissa Airlie said she thought it unlikely.
‘The blood was wet so it was unlikely it had been cleaned,’ she told the court.
Police were questioned about whether they had followed up on a report that an unknown person had been seen fleeing the house shortly after Ms Zafirovska died.
Detective Senior Constable Martin Payne said there had been lots of activity in the street on the morning of her death, as residents walked dogs and prepared to leave for work, and that police door-knocked many homes.
He said the person seen leaving the area by a witness was ‘deemed not to be anything more than someone going for a walk’.
However, he conceded he did not know this for sure.
‘I can’t say who that person was,’ he told the court.
Ms Zafirovska did not enter a plea to the murder charge. She will stand trial in the Supreme Court on a date to be determined.
There was also extensive blood spatter on the bedroom walls, and minute traces of blood were found in the kitchen and bathroom sinks
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