Mark Lundy called his house on the day his wife and daughter were found dead, a court has heard.
Lundy, 56, is accused of staging a burglary, and launching a "ferocious" attack on his wife, Christine, 38, and daughter Amber, 7, with a small axe or tomahawk which has not been found.
First convicted in 2002, he now has a new trial because of a Privy Council ruling, and has pleaded not guilty. Today is day two of the murder retrial at the High Court in Wellington today.
Our reporter Jono Galuszka was updating news from the courtroom throughout the day, which you can read below. You can also read a wrap of the day in court here.
Key moments in the trial today:
* Defence lawyer David Hislop alleged that Glenn Weggery, Christine Lundy's younger brother, killed Christine and Amber Lundy. Weggery was the first witness for the Crown. He had found the bodies at the Lundy's home.
* The court was told that when police examined Glenn Weggery's car, they found the boot contained traces of blood. They also found blood spots in Weggery's bathroom. Weggery said he knew nothing about the blood. When the spots were analysed, pieces of DNA were found to be an 83 per cent match to Christine Lundy and an 88 per cent match to Amber Lundy.
* Christine Lundy's friend Karen Keenan, the second witness for the Crown, told the court she turned up at the Lundys' house to find Weggery in a "very stressed" state.
* Keenan said "there was blood all down the walls and on the roof". After trying to call police from the home phone, she answered a call from Mark Lundy. She said he wanted to talk to Christine, but she told him she was "tied up" after asking police at the scene for advice.
* Keenan also told that court Christine once said she and Mark Lundy were paying more than $600 a day in interest on a wine venture they had invested in.
* Wayne Welford, the first paramedic on the scene, also gave evidence. Welford said he did not have to touch Amber or Christine Lundy to know they were dead.
READ MORE:
* Mark Lundy murder retrial: Christine Lundy's brother accused of killings
* Lundy murder retrial - who's who
* Day 1: Mark Lundy murder retrial case 'completely different', court told
* Point and counterpoint: The Lundy murder retrial day one key arguments
* Court told of Mark Lundy's 'jailhouse confession'
4.45PM: At the time of Christine and Amber's death, Mark Lundy was an active member in the local wine club.
Julie Burnett, who ran the Manawatu Wine Club, said Lundy was on the committee and involved in running tastings for up to 140 people at a time.
He would also buy wine on tasting nights from the presenting wineries, using his credit card, she said.
The process involved his card being charged about a week after the event, and transactions declined on a not-uncommon basis.
Burnett said the transactions would usually be resolved within a week.
4.16PM: Deborah Malcolm, who lived on the same street as the Lundys, has given evidence.
The only axe she saw Mark Lundy use was not one he owned, she said.
Malcolm said the kitchen sinks which were delivered for the Lundys' business came on pallets.
Mark Lundy would chop the pallets into kindling, which he would give to his mother.
Malcolm said Lundy would borrow the axe she and her husband owned, and she had not seen him use any other axe.
3.21PM: Constable Robyn Pewhairangi, one of the first police officers on the scene of the Lundy killings, said she was told the pair were dead before blocking off the crime scene.
She used a chair to block the hallway, before getting Glenn Weggery and Karen Keenan to move into the kitchen.
"I took chairs in there to keep them away from the hallway.
"Karen went and stood beside a chair, and Glenn hit his head against a kitchen cupboard, I believe out of frustration."
3.02PM: Wayne Welford, the first paramedic on the scene, said he did not have to touch Amber or Christine Lundy to know they were dead.
He told the court the wound in Amber's head, and the dried blood on the walls, made it obvious she was dead.
Upon seeing Christine lying in bed, he also decided she was dead.
He had taken a resuscitation kit and paramedic kit into the house, but dropped them 1.5 metres from Amber's body.
2.42PM: Christine Lundy once said she and Mark Lundy were paying more than $600 a day in interest on a wine venture they had invested in, Karen Keenan said.
"I said 'how the hell do you sleep at night with that over your head', and Christine said Mark was sorting it out by getting investors," she said.
The conversation happened in about April 2000, four months before Christine and Amber were found dead.
2.31PM: Christine Lundy's friend Karen Keenan, the second witness for the Crown, has told the court she turned up at the Lundys' house to find Glenn Weggery in a "very stressed" state.
She then entered the house and saw the bodies of her friend and Amber.
"There was blood all down the walls and on the roof."
After trying to call police from the home phone, she answered a call from Mark Lundy.
She said he wanted to talk to Christine, but she told him she was "tied up" after asking police at the scene for advice.
2.19PM: Glenn Weggery has finished giving evidence by explaining why he went to play netball on the night of August 30, 2000 - the day he found the bodies of Christine and Amber.
Earlier, defence lawyer David Hislop suggested it showed he was not grieving for the pair.
But Weggery said it was what he did when stressed or upset.
"I did the same thing when my best mate died from cancer. I went and played rugby."
2.10PM: The court has been played the 111 call Glenn Weggery made when he found Amber Lundy's body.
He asked for an ambulance, saying "my niece is lying on the floor, not moving".
He was initially told by the operator not to touch anything, before he said he saw a "gaping head wound" and asked to check Amber's pulse.
The operator gave him permission to do so before terminating the call.
12.44PM: When police examined Glenn Weggery's car, they found the boot contained traces of blood.
They also found blood spots in Weggery's bathroom.
When the spots were analysed, pieces of DNA were found to be an 83 per cent match to Christine Lundy and an 88 per cent match to Amber Lundy.
Weggery said he knew nothing about the blood.
He also said he knew nothing about blood traces which were found in his car boot.
12.16PM: Allegations have also been levelled at Glenn Weggery that he killed his sister, Christine Lundy.
Defence lawyer David Hislop said it would likely not be disputed that Christine suffered defensive wounds to her arms and hands.
"Did Christine try and fend you off?"
Weggery: "I never went into that bedroom and I'm not going to sit here and be accused of it."
12.09PM: Defence lawyer David Hislop has alleged that Glenn Weggery killed Amber Lundy.
During the 111 call Weggery made, he told the operator Amber had "gaping head injuries".
"I suggested that the only reason you know this is because you hit her on the head," Hislop said.
Weggery did not respond.
10.57AM: Defence lawyer David Hislop asked Glenn Weggery why he did not immediately go to see Amber, instead getting a phone to call emergency services, when he saw her lying on the floor.
Hislop said police suggested the same thing when they interviewed Weggery in 2000.
"You could see that she had blood on her head from your position," the lawyer said.
"It was being suggested [by police in their interview with you] that it would be the most natural thing in the world that, instead of immediately ringing 111, to go to your niece and see if she is alive."
Hislop also asked why Weggery did not call out for Christine when he saw Amber.
Weggery said he had already called for his sister, and he did not want to waste time looking for her when Amber was not in a good way.
"My first instinct was to call emergency services," he said.
10.49AM: Glenn Weggery was interviewed by police for three hours in October 2000, during which it was suggested he murdered Christine and Amber Lundy, the court heard.
Under cross-examination from defence lawyer David Hislop, Weggery said police had suggested he murdered them.
During the interview, he was questioned by police about why he phoned the Lundys' house before going there on August 30.
"The implication they were making is that . . . you were trying to lay an innocent trail," Hislop said.
Weggery: "That might be what you get from it."
10.38AM: Soon after finding Amber, Glenn Weggery found his sister Christine dead in her room, he said.
He then called emergency services and went outside to wait for them.
During that time, Christine's friend Karen Keenan arrived.
Mark Lundy called the house soon after, and Keenan talked to him, Weggery said.
Police and ambulance services then arrived.
10.30AM: Glenn Weggery found Christine and Amber Lundy dead on the morning of August 30, 2000, after going to the Lundys' house to see how his GST return, being prepared by Christine, was coming along.
Weggery said he had also gone to the Lundys' house on August 28 and 29.
Christine Lundy did the GST returns for him, and on all three days he was checking to see if the latest return had been done, he said.
On the morning of August 30 he called the Lundys' house from a truck depot, but no one answered.
He went to the Lundys' via Turners & Growers on Tremaine Ave, parking outside the house at about 8.45am, he said.
He went up the driveway, taking junk mail out of the letterbox in the process, and walked around the back of the house to enter through the conservatory - the usual entrance he used - when he found a door open.
Weggery said he entered and dropped the junk mail on a table before going down the hall towards an office, when he saw something.
"I saw Amber lying face-down at the far end of the hallway," he said.
10.03AM: Glenn Weggery, Christine Lundy's younger brother, has been called as the Crown's first witness.
- Stuff
