The body of a missing man was found wrapped in a blood-stained bedsheet under a sheet of plastic in the back garden of the home he shared with his former partner, a murder trial jury has heard.
On Monday at the Central Criminal Court, Monika Matracka (35), of The Pines, Briarfield, Castletroy, Limerick pleaded not guilty to murdering Michal Rejmer (38) at that address at a time unknown between 8pm on December 30th and midnight on December 31, 2015.
Opening the prosecution case to a jury on Wednesday Mr Paul Carroll SC told the court that Ms Matracka told gardai that she stabbed her housemate and former partner in self-defence.
Mr Rejmer was reported missing on January 6th, 2016 after colleagues became concerned when he had not turned up for work at MacDonald’s in Castletroy for a number of days.
The court heard that one of the areas the jury will have to consider is whether the defence of self-defence arises in this case.
On Thursday prosecution counsel Mr Carroll called Mr Mike Purtill, who knew Mr Rejmer from Dooneen Athletics Club in Limerick, to give evidence.
The court heard that people from the local athletics clubs wanted to organise a search for Mr Rejmer so Mr Purtill called Limerick Land Search Team and arranged to meet a man called Adrian Kiely outside McDonald’s in Castletroy that same day.
The witness testified that both he and Mr Kiely went to the deceased’s house and Ms Matracka opened the door.
“We went into the sitting room. I noticed on her fingers tips she had ashes, her finger tips were black, it looked like copy book being burned,” he said.
Mr Purtill said he was “kind of frustrated” as he and Mr Kiely were asking Ms Matracka what clothes Mr Rejmer had been wearing and she “was saying she didn’t know.”
“I remember saying to her were you not in the house when Michal came in, she said that was easy for me to say as I can go home to my wife while she doesn’t see Michal for three to four days sometimes,” he said.
Mr Purtill said a search party was organised for the following morning, January 8th.
The prosecution also called Adrian Kiely, from Limerick Land Search Team, to give evidence.
The court heard that he and Mr Purtill went to Mr Rejmer’s house on January 7th as that “was his last known location.”
Mr Kiely said he noticed Ms Matracka was “burning papers” and her laptop was on the table in the sitting room.
The witness said he organised a search party for January 8th.
Mr Kiely split the group up into teams to search different areas.
Mr Kiely and a neighbour of the deceased, Mr Kanios, returned to Mr Rejmer’s house and searched the garden.
“I heard Mr Kanios say something like ‘here here’. I walked towards him, he lifted a piece of plastic back and when I saw what was under it I told him to back away and I called the gardai,” said Mr Kiely.
Mr Kiely said that he “observed the side of a face.”
The prosecution also called Mr Adrzej Kanios, a neighbour and friend of Mr Rejmer, to give evidence.
Mr Kanios said he was in Mr Rejmer’s back garden as part of the search party on January 8th when he went over to the oil tank and looked behind a pile of turf.
As he was standing up on some black plastic he felt something soft and pulled back some of the plastic. “I saw something that resembled a head wrapped in a bedsheet. I just had a quick glance,” he said.
Garda James Muldowney from Henry Street Garda station told the court that he took a missing person statement from Ms Matracka on January 8th.
Ms Matracka told him that she met Mr Rejmer in Poland in 2005 and had been living in Ireland three years. They broke up in 2013 but remained good friends. She said the last time she saw him was on January 30th, 2015 when he was on the computer. She then went to bed, put her headphones on and went to sleep.
Ms Matracka said she went to work the following day and Mr Rejmer’s bedroom door was closed. When she came home the place was cleaned. She worked mornings and he worked evenings so they sometimes would not see each other for three to four days.
Gda Muldowney told the court that after he left Ms Matracka, he received a call fromthe station to return to the house as a body had been found.
The prosecution also called Ms Yvonne Bridgeman, who lived next door to the accused and Mr Rejmer, to give evidence.
Ms Bridgeman told the court that she was watching television in her bedroom on December 30 when she heard what “sounded like an argument” and “a female shouting” about 1.30am.
“It was a female voice and sounded like someone was getting very angry. Straight after the angry shouting it sounded like someone lifted up a table and threw it around the room. After that there was complete silence,” she said.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Paul Butler and a jury of six men and six women.