A man accused of bludgeoning a north-east mechanic to death inside his home was seen outside the property the day before.
Brian McKandie was found dead in Fairview Cottages in Badenscoth in March of 2016.
And Steven Sidebottom, 25, is on trial at the High Court in Aberdeen accused of murdering him and stealing money from him.
Police investigators originally thought Brian McKandie’s death was an accident
Yesterday a friend of Mr McKandie said she and her children saw Sidebottom at the property the day before he died.
The court also heard police scene examiners did not realise there had been a murder for a week.
They initially believed Mr McKandie had died as a result of an accident and did not take precautions, such as wearing protective gear.
The High Court heard it also took investigators a month to discover there were stacks of notes totalling thousands of pounds in the home.
Giving evidence yesterday, Jill Auchnie told a jury that Mr McKandie had been undertaking some work on her car and that she had gone to collect it on the evening of Thursday March 10.
She said when she approached she saw a white van parked there and a man exiting the garage as she went in.
The 43-year-old said her son and daughter had joined her as she spoke to Mr McKandie for 15 to 20 minutes.
Man goes on trial accused of murdering north-east mechanic in his rural home
When she came out the man was still there.
Advocate depute Iain McSporran QC asked her if she could see the man in court. She identified Sidebottom as the man she’d seen.
The witness claimed there had been a brief conversation involving him and her daughter while her son was still in the garage speaking to Mr McKandie but could not recall any details.
When asked whether she thought anything of it she said: “I remember saying to my husband how strange it was that the person was still there.”
Earlier in the day, the court heard from numerous scenes of crime examiners from the Scottish Police Authority.
The first of these, Julie Goodeve was called to Fairview Cottages on Saturday March 12.
She said the death was not initially treated as suspicious and so protective gear was not in place.
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She said “the general consensus was an accident has occurred” and the hypothesis was that Mr McKandie had hit his head then fallen to his death.
Later in the day, the court heard from John Dingwall who became involved at the scene when a postmortem revealed what had caused the injuries.
He had already made multiple visits to what was now a crime scene when he was called to attend again.
Mr Dingwall said: “It was April 28, the crime scene manager and other police officers had been searching the scene and had found money in tins.”
The court was shown pictures taken at the scene of bundles of notes, wrapped up, which had been stored in biscuit, Toblerone and Quality Street tins and elsewhere.
Sidebottom, of Crannabog Farm in Rothienorman, denies the charges against him.
His defence team have launched two special defences; one that he was elsewhere at his home and at other locations when the crime took place and the second that another man, from Bridge of Don, was responsible.
The trial, before Lord Uist, continues.
