The Hannah Cornelius trial resumed in the Western Cape High Court yesterday.

After Friday’s testimony by Cheslin Marsh, who was kidnapped along with Hannah, attention turned to evidence from state witnesses testifying on the technical aspects of the investigation.

Before we get to police fingerprint expert Captain Jan Bester, let’s hear from Conrad Booysen and Flippie Matthee, who also testified yesterday.

Times LIVE reports:

When [they] placed a massive rock over a borehole‚ they were unintentionally setting down the weapon which would be used to end Hannah Cornelius’s life.

The two men testified on Tuesday in the high court in Cape Town how they went to fix a borehole pump on Groenhoek farm near Stellenbosch on the afternoon of Friday‚ May 26‚ 2017.

After they removed a pump in need of repair from deep beneath the earth‚ they placed a rock over the hole. The rock was so large that the 54-year-old Booysen could not pick it up. His younger colleague Matthee‚ 32‚ said he manhandled the “hefty” rock into place.

“Sometimes the farm kids will throw rubbish down the hole‚” said Matthee…

At about 6:30am the next day‚ Cornelius was lying by the borehole with her face in the ground. Her heart was pumping blood through two neck wounds‚ possibly from the swift penetrating thrust of a screwdriver‚ but this was not what killed her.

According to Dr Deirdre Abrahams‚ the forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy on Cornelius’s body‚ the fatal blows came when her murderers twice dropped the rock covering the borehole on the back of her head.

“The blunt force injuries to her head were very rapidly fatal‚” said Abrahams.

When Matthee and Booysen returned the next day, they found Hannah’s body. Her jeans were pulled halfway down, and there were “bruises on her knees and legs‚ and bruising on her arms from the strong grip of the men who had killed her”.

During his testimony, police fingerprint expert Captain Jan Bester outlined some of the state’s evidence. This from a second Times LIVE report:

The left thumbprint of rape and murder accused Geraldo Parsons was found on a condom packet in the area where Hannah Cornelius was raped, the court heard on Tuesday…

Bester analysed the fingerprints on an empty Max condom wrapper which was found by a sniffer dog, a labrador called Ethan, at a paintball club near Kraaifontein where Hannah was raped in the early morning hours of May 27.

The dog has been trained to sniff out bodily fluids including semen, and K9 unit member Sergeant Jerome Timmy found the empty packet and used condoms on Sunday, May 28.

As it stands, Parsons and co-accused Vernon Witbooi and Eben van Niekerk are being charged with Hannah’s murder, amongst other things.

A fourth man, Nashville Julius, faces robbery and kidnapping charges, but not murder and rape charges.

All four have pleaded not guilty, and the trial continues today.

[sources:timeslive&timeslive]