Traces of blood from a mother of four were found near the stream where she drowned, a Co Fermanagh murder trial heard yesterday.
Enniskillen Crown Court was told Ms Fiona Conlon (28) had sex with her estranged husband, Mr Anthony Conlon, some time before her frozen body was found in a stream near Dungannon on March 4th, 1997.
Mr Anthony Joseph Conlon, of Clonmore Gardens, Omagh, is charged with raping and murdering his wife near her Ballysaggart home in Dungannon.
Ms Conlon died from drowning in a stream 22 inches deep, but she had a deep stab wound in the right side of her back. A bloodied black-handled kitchen knife was found close to her body. In an earlier statement, Mr Conlon told police he and Ms Conlon had been attacked by a knife-wielding man as they had sex in a field around midnight on March 3rd-4th.
Mr Conlon took the RUC to the scene and told them he was knocked out by his attacker. Ms Conlon had gone when he came around, he claimed. But the prosecution said this account was false, as Mr Conlon changed his story after his sixth interview with the police and admitted stabbing her.
Meanwhile, a handwriting expert, Mr Craythorne, verified that letters written in a black biro on smudged notepaper were all Mr Conlon's handwriting. In the letters Mr Conlon claimed he did "the awful deed" to protect his children and his family.