Grace Millane murder trial: Police officer describes finding suitcase in shallow grave
The police officer who found Grace Millane's body in the Waitākere Ranges has described tracking cell phone data to a shallow grave.
Ms Millane went missing from Auckland's CBD on the eve of her 22nd birthday while travelling on a worldwide OE.
She had met a 27-year-old man for a Tinder date and died in his apartment sometime between 1 and 2 December.
The man, who has name suppression, is now on trial in the High Court at Auckland accused of murdering her.
The Crown allege he strangled her to death, while the defence says Ms Millane accidentally died after he applied pressure to her neck with her consent and encouragement.
The jury has heard the man watched pornography and took seven explicit photographs of Ms Millane that evening but whether she was dead or alive at the time is disputed.
It has also heard the man contorted her body into a large suitcase the following morning before going on a Tinder date with another woman and later burying the bag in the Waitākere Ranges.
This afternoon Detective Evan Ingley described finding the suitcase in a shallow grave about 10 to 15 metres into dense bush off a gravel carpark on Scenic Drive.
"I could see an area of ferns and some trees that looked like they'd been broken off and placed on top of an area ... they were piled on there haphazardly," he said.
The jury was shown scene photographs which showed a large, light-coloured suitcase sitting in a shallow grave with broken sticks and branches nearby.
Grace Millane murder trial: Police officer describes finding suitcase in shallow grave
Ms Millane went missing from Auckland's CBD on the eve of her 22nd birthday while travelling on a worldwide OE.
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