Tralee murder trial told dog stood guard over body

The trial of a Lithuanian forestry worker for the double murder of a mother and daughter in Co Kerry a year ago heard today how the woman’s pet dog stood guard over her dead body.

The Central Criminal Court in Tralee also heard how the dog’s “scraping at the letter box” of the house at Langford Downs in Killorglin drew the dead woman’s best friend to look in the window and see a body on the floor.

Aurimas Andruska (27), of Ardmoniel Heights, Killorglin, has pleaded not guilty to the murders of Jolanta Lubiene (27) and her daughter Enrika (8) at Langford Downs, Killorglin, on a date unknown between June 15th and June 17th, 2013.

Ramute Narmute, a Lithuanian woman living in Killorglin, had been Ms Lubiene's best friend for a year, she told the court.

Ms Lubiene was "always" on the phone or the internet, and she knew no one who used the phone so much, she told Isobel Kennedy, prosecuting.

Ms Lubiene was due to return to Lithuania in July to look after her father who had cancer, and she was then going to go to her husband, Marius Lubys who was living in Sweden, Ms Narmute said.

She was selling her possessions, and giving away some CDs and videos, and she was giving some of her CDs “to the person who sits behind me”, she said indicating the accused.

On Sunday at around 8.20pm she went to Ms Lubiene’s house accompanied by her husband. She had been trying to contact her since Saturday, June 15th, through phone and Skype but there was “no response”.

The curtains of the house at Langford Downs, usually open, were closed.

Ms Narmute rang the door bell but no body answered. Ms Lubiene’s dog, a mini-pincer was barking inside. As she was about to leave, the dog began scraping the letter box.

Hall floor

Looking through a

window she saw blood on the hall floor and called her husband, and then went to the window to the left side of the door.

“What did you see?” Ms Kennedy asked:

“There was blood on the stairs, also on the wall. Then I saw Jolanta in the kitchen.”

Garda Eamon Prendeville, the first garda to arrive at the scene, told how he entered the house through the back door and saw the body of a woman lying on the kitchen floor "covered in blood". The blood on the wall and floor was dry.

“The small black dog was barking around the woman’s body,” the garda said.

Relationship

Separately, Ms Narmute was asked what she knew about the relationship between Ms Lubiene and her husband. The witness agreed it was “not entirely” happy.

Brendan Grehan SC, for the defence, put it to her she had told the Garda that Ms Lubiene and her husband, Marius Lubys, had “split up”. She said she meant he was in Sweden and she was in Ireland.

Asked by Mr Grehan if Ms Lubiene behaved “like a married woman”, she replied “no”. She was not aware that the accused man and her dead friend had sexual contact.

Mr Grehan asked her if she knew her friend had known many men and had put herself on websites. Ms Narmute said Ms Lubiene was registered on adult websites to meet men and her nickname was “SnowWhite”.

“It’s not necessarily in a sexual manner, but for friendship,” Ms Narmute said.

The trial continues.