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Speaker 1: Kyota. I'm Chelsea Daniels and from the team behind the

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Speaker 1: front page the New Zealand Herald's daily news podcast, This

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Speaker 1: is Accused. The Polkinghorn Trial. Over the next six weeks,

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Speaker 1: in conjunction with our usual daily episodes, will be bringing

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Speaker 1: you regular coverage as one of the most high profile

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Speaker 1: trials of the year makes its way through the High

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Speaker 1: Court at Auckland. A warning, this podcast contains disturbing content.

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Speaker 1: Day three of the trial of Philip Polkinghorn centered around

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Speaker 1: a bright orange rope hanging from a balustrade and a

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Speaker 1: detailed walkthrough of the scene examination of the couple's remuerra home.

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Speaker 1: The former auckland Ie surgeon maintains his wife took her

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Speaker 1: own life on the morning of April fifth, twenty twenty one,

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Speaker 1: and Easter Monday, but the Crown claims he staged the

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Speaker 1: scene to look like a suicide. First off, it's important

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Speaker 1: to understand the layout of that entrance way and the

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Speaker 1: stairs leading up to the second floor. Pauline Hanna's body

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Speaker 1: was found at the bottom of four steps on the

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Speaker 1: floor of the entrance way. If you were making your

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Speaker 1: way up to the second floor from the front door,

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Speaker 1: you would walk those steps, turn left on a small landing,

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Speaker 1: turn left again, then continue upstairs to the second floor.

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Speaker 1: Your left hand would touch the solid wooden hand rail

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Speaker 1: on your way up, and as you reach the top,

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Speaker 1: the wood connects to a balustrade, a railing made up

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Speaker 1: of eleven black rods. Now you're at the balustrade. Imagine

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Speaker 1: you're standing there, leaning on the black metal. You'd be

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Speaker 1: looking down and you'd see the four initial steps and

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Speaker 1: the landing to your left would be the stairs. Had

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Speaker 1: just walked up with that solid wooden hand rail when

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Speaker 1: officers arrived. Photos show you can see a rope hanging

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Speaker 1: overhead a few steps in from the front door that

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Speaker 1: just entered. Hannah's body in front of them. The orange

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Speaker 1: rope was tied around three of those black iron rods

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Speaker 1: that made up the balustrade. That rope could be seen

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Speaker 1: hanging above the entrance way where Hannah's body was found.

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Speaker 1: Crown Prosecutor Alicia McClintock first called to the stand Detective

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Speaker 1: Elona Walton, who was at the scene that morning. Walton

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Speaker 1: described walking through the house into the garage where she

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Speaker 1: saw two cars, one with its boot open. The court

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Speaker 1: heard that one of those cars a Mercedes had a

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Speaker 1: personalized number plate alluding to Polkinghorn's successful career as an

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Speaker 1: eye surgeonr E t Ina Retina. She described the tension

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Speaker 1: check down on the rope hanging from the balustrade. It

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Speaker 1: took twenty to thirty seconds, with her colleague, Sergeant Christian Ioga,

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Speaker 1: pulling on it gently using a finger and a thumb.

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Speaker 2: Whereabouts on that loose end of the rope is he pulling?

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Speaker 3: Do you know? I'm somewhere in the middle. Maybe I

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Speaker 3: can't specify exactly whereabouts?

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Speaker 2: And when he first pulls on that rope just explained

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Speaker 2: for us what what you saw happened to the rope, And.

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Speaker 3: It just kept going and going and going and going.

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Speaker 2: What do you mean going and going?

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Speaker 3: When extending out from where he was holding it, so

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Speaker 3: it didn't just stop and he pulled on it in

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Speaker 3: a jam. Oh sorry, he pulled it, and the rope

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Speaker 3: just kept unraveling and coming undone.

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Speaker 1: In later photos, instead of the orange rope dangling from above,

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Speaker 1: it now touched the white tiled floor of the entrance way.

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Speaker 1: Walton said it seemed unusual. It's not like a that

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Speaker 1: would normally be found when someone had hung himself. Defense

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Speaker 1: lawyer Ron Mansfield cross examined Walton, saying police had, after

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Speaker 1: about an hour of being there, already concluded it was

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Speaker 1: suspicious because of this test, But he said Polkinghorn had

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Speaker 1: already admitted he had handled the rope upstairs in his

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Speaker 1: initial statement at the scene, and then within.

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Speaker 4: That statement you would have noted that it read I

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Speaker 4: did the following things, and because I was so flustered,

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Speaker 4: I undid the belt and rope from around Paunan's neck

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Speaker 4: and then went upstairs to undo the knock from the court.

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Speaker 4: Can you see that.

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Speaker 1: He said the fact the rope was easily unraveled was

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Speaker 1: because his client had gone upstairs to undo it.

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Speaker 4: But given the importance of this tension check, why didn't

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Speaker 4: you go and speak to doctor Polkinghorn and ask him

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Speaker 4: then and there around some details about when he went

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Speaker 4: upstairs and how he handled the rope in order to

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Speaker 4: see whether there might be a very logical explanation for

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Speaker 4: how the loosely core rope on top of the stairs

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Speaker 4: so easily once again just fell downstairs.

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Speaker 3: That was why I invited him back to the police

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Speaker 3: station to discuss that.

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Speaker 4: But why couldn't you've asked him simply then before the

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Speaker 4: scene is treated as suspicious.

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Speaker 3: Because if the scene's treated as suspicious, you want to

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Speaker 3: reduce any further contamination.

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Speaker 1: And he asked why Walton didn't just speak to him

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Speaker 1: at the home. There could have been a reasonable explanation.

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Speaker 1: The detective's answers on how the rope test was conducted

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Speaker 1: became less clear as Mansfield ramped up his questioning.

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Speaker 5: So, if the detective constable leaned over the wooden railing

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Speaker 5: that we can see, which is a solid wooden railing,

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Speaker 5: how was he able to grab hold of.

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Speaker 4: The rope that we see dangle down in photo nineteen.

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Speaker 3: Grabbed? I'm assuming the top part.

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Speaker 4: I just pause you there, Why are we assuming?

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Speaker 3: Well, he's grabbed the top part of the.

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Speaker 4: Rope, So what part did he grab.

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Speaker 3: He's grabbed the part of the rope that's dropping down.

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Speaker 3: I can't tell you an exact which part of that

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Speaker 3: rope he grabbed.

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Speaker 1: The knot of the rope sat in the middle of

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Speaker 1: those three rods. It was tied around something that raised

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Speaker 1: questions would it have slipped down the rods if weight

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Speaker 1: had been applied to the rope. Sergeant Ioga tested this

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Speaker 1: using a gloved finger.

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Speaker 6: I believe at the time that if this was death

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Speaker 6: by hanging, that I believed that if there was any

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Speaker 6: weight put on it from someone hanging from it, that

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Speaker 6: that rope itself would be down the bottom of the

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Speaker 6: balustrade before it had any tension. So I wanted to

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Speaker 6: make sure to see how tight that rope was, to

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Speaker 6: see if it would stay there when any pressure was

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Speaker 6: put on it. Yes, So with that still wearing gloves,

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Speaker 6: just using my index finger just to the left of

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Speaker 6: the knot, I put my finger on top to see

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Speaker 6: if it would slide up and down, and again with

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Speaker 6: a minimum tension, that rope that's tied around the three

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Speaker 6: balustrades slipped down a little bit, and then I went

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Speaker 6: back underneath it to pull it up, and it slid

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Speaker 6: back up as well.

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Speaker 1: McLintock asked for his conclusion. He said, at that point,

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Speaker 1: I didn't believe it would sustain any weight. Police then

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Speaker 1: decided to leave the rope where it was. The entire

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Speaker 1: balustrade was then removed from the landing with the rope

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Speaker 1: so the knot and rope could be kept intact for

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Speaker 1: further examination later.

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Speaker 3: He said.

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Speaker 1: By late morning, Walton and another officer took Polkinghorn to

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Speaker 1: the police station to give a formal statement. On their way,

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Speaker 1: he said the orange rope was used the day before

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Speaker 1: by Hannah on her trip to the tip. He hadn't

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Speaker 1: eaten that morning, he told officers. The last meal he

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Speaker 1: had eaten was the one his wife had made him

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Speaker 1: the night before.

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Speaker 2: What did he say to you about that?

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Speaker 3: I think that was basically that he'd been doing most

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Speaker 3: of the cooking at that time while she'd been busy.

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Speaker 2: Did he talk to you about what his wife.

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Speaker 3: Had cooked them the night before? Pork strips and veggies

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Speaker 3: and potatoes that she'd forgotten to serve, That's what he said. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Did he talk to you about either his appetitle who's

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Speaker 2: at that point in type?

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Speaker 3: Yes, he said his wife had a big appetite and

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Speaker 3: it was the largest mail he had in a long time.

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Speaker 1: They arrived at the police station at about twelve thirty pm.

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Speaker 1: Who was happy to engage in a video interview that

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Speaker 1: began at one eleven pm. The interview took about three

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Speaker 1: hours and will later be played in its entirety to

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Speaker 1: the court. Police scoured every one of the three hundred

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Speaker 1: and seventy square meters of the Upland Road home, four bedrooms,

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Speaker 1: four bathrooms, the library, kitchen, study, laundry. Sergeant Christian Ioga

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Speaker 1: assumed the role of officer in charge of the scene

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Speaker 1: until the end of the scene examination on April thirteenth,

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, eight days after Hannah's body was found.

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Speaker 1: After the main entrance way where Hannah's body was found,

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Speaker 1: they first turned their attention to the laundry and the

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Speaker 1: bedroom upstairs where she'd slept the night before. A blue

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Speaker 1: ottoman was found on its side. The white bed spread

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Speaker 1: was disheveled. There was no top sheet, a cup, a

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Speaker 1: water bottle, and a mobile phone charging on a side table.

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Speaker 1: On another end, two stuffed animals sat. Two pillows were

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Speaker 1: on the bed. Others were strewn around the room. At

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Speaker 1: the foot of the bed, there was a brown smudge.

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Speaker 1: It was later tested and indicated there was a high

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Speaker 1: probability it was blood, Ioga said. In the ensuite, liquid

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Speaker 1: from the unflushed toilet was taken. Meth traces would later

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Speaker 1: be identified. There would later be no evidence of Hannah

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Speaker 1: using meth, none in her urine or hair samples taken

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Speaker 1: after her death. Ioga detailed the scene examination of the home.

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Speaker 1: He noted a pink container with black riding in a

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Speaker 1: drawer in an en suite, a container with a red

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Speaker 1: lid in the master bedroom, a brown black box under

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Speaker 1: the bed with a butane lighter. That is it.

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Speaker 2: A box beside it?

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Speaker 6: Yes, that is a box beside it. And then upon

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Speaker 6: opening the box, as you can see in image ninety seven,

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Speaker 6: it revealed a used glass pipe which is commonly used

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Speaker 6: to smoke meth and fetamine.

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Speaker 1: Thirty seven point seven grams of meth would be found

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Speaker 1: in total dotted around the home. Ioga also mentioned items

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Speaker 1: had found in the washing machine.

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Speaker 6: So the item that was in the dryer was a

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Speaker 6: large white colored sheet Demani branded it was a little

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Speaker 6: bit damp and this had been seized by Fiona mathieson

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Speaker 6: the ESR Scientists on day.

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Speaker 2: Two ed was there a range of items in the

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Speaker 2: washing machine?

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Speaker 4: Yes?

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Speaker 3: There was wheat or not wat?

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Speaker 2: Did that include a variety of clothing?

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Speaker 6: Clothing and tee tails.

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Speaker 3: Clothing?

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Speaker 2: Did that appear to be female clothing?

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Speaker 6: Female clothing?

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Speaker 1: The trail continues to You can listen to episodes of

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Speaker 1: Accused the Polkinghorn Trial through the Front Page podcast feed

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Speaker 1: or find it on iHeartRadio. Or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Speaker 1: This series is presented and produced by me Chelsea Daniels,

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Speaker 1: with producer Ethan Siles and sound engineer Patti Fox And.

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Speaker 1: For more coverage of the Polkinghorn trial, head to enzidherld

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Speaker 1: dot co dot nz