A murder trial was told yesterday that the accused, Robert O'Brien, told the husband of the alleged victim, Elizabeth McCarthy (32), that he dropped her off on their way home from a wedding on the last night that she was seen alive.
On the fourth day of the trial at the Central Criminal Court in Ennis yesterday, Patrick McCarthy told the court that after Elizabeth McCarthy did not return home on September 28th, 2004, he went in the morning to the Dingle Road halting site at Tralee where her family lived.
At the site he met her brother, Mr O'Brien, and asked him where he had last seen Ms McCarthy.
Mr McCarthy told the court: "He told me that he left her at South Dock, and he went home."
Mr O'Brien (27), of John's Park, Castleisland, Co Kerry, denies the murder and attempted rape of his sister, Ms McCarthy, at the Quay, Blennerville, Co Kerry, on September 28th, 2004.
Mr McCarthy told the court yesterday how he waited up for his wife to come home after the wedding, and stayed with their youngest son, then aged 17 months, in the downstairs of their home.
Mr McCarthy described how he dropped off Ms McCarthy to the wedding of a cousin earlier, and cared for their three young boys at their home in Tralee while she was at the function.
In court yesterday Mr McCarthy identified a dress and a cream slip-on shoe that belonged to his late wife.
Mr McCarthy said that Mr O'Brien and his brother, Michael, came by his home on the evening of September 27th.
"They didn't say anything, and just stayed for four or five minutes," he said.
The court was told by a sister of the deceased, Kathleen Coffey, that she drove Michael back to Castleisland after the wedding, and he stayed at their home that night and the following night.
The court has already been told that Ms McCarthy died from asphyxiation, suffered multiple blows to her head and body and was dead before her body entered water.
The court has been told that Ms McCarthy was last seen with her brother, Robert O'Brien, after they both attended a cousin's wedding on September 27th, 2004.
On September 29th, Ms McCarthy's body was found washed up on a tributary of the Lee outside Tralee.
The case continues before Mr Justice Paul Carney today.