Weeks before a Walcha grazier was found dead at home his partner searched the internet for a poison to kill someone that was untraceable, a jury has heard.
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Several website searches on Natasha Beth Darcy's iPhones made close to Mathew Dunbar's death on August 2, 2017, were read out in her murder trial in the NSW Supreme Court over two days.
The 46-year-old has pleaded not guilty to murdering the 42-year-old sheep farmer on his property Pandora in the Northern Tablelands town of Walcha. Her guilty plea to aiding or abetting suicide was rejected by the Crown.
She says his death was suicide, while her barrister cited a string of issues including the sheep farmer's confused sexuality, his serious leg problem and depression.
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In between questions about Portuguese tarts and the television show Orange Is The New Black, Senior Constable Ben Blair discovered deleted Google searches on Darcy's iPhones 6 and 7 about overdosing on various medications, and methods of doing so.
Gas bottles, whether certain chemicals could stop the heart, murder by inducing a heart attack, and an article headlined "science of getting away with murder" were also found to have been erased.
"Can police see past web search history," was looked up on July 31, 2017.
Geolocation points were taken at the home in Pandora and across neighbouring country towns Armidale and Dorrigo's showground, where "suicide" and "gas" was explored.
"Is there a poison that can kill someone but be untraceable at autopsy," was one precise topic searched, the jury was told.
Defence barrister Nick Broadbent questioned Google's algorithm tailoring future searches based on previous history.
Senior Constable Blair confirmed items could vary from person-to-person based on this, and that there were no password codes on the two iPhones he examined.
He could not establish whether a pincode had ever been set for the devices.
A further iPhone 8 was also seized from Darcy following her arrest, which showed an email exchange with an Apple representative regarding the recovery of deleted web history.
The trial continues before Justice Julia Lonergan.
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Australian Associated Press
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