Mysterious ‘Stain 91’ found on garage floor of Robert Xie accused of murdering five family members
NOVEMBER 23, 20164:53PM
IT IS a small, mysterious blood spot called “Stain 91” which contains the mingled DNA of at least four of the five victims in the Lin family murders, according to prosecutors in the trial of Robert Xie.
Discovered in May 2010, the spot lay in a forgotten corner of his garage in North Epping a short walk from the house where five of his wife’s family had been found bludgeoned to death the previous year.
Eliptical in shape, 2cm long by 6cm wide and a dark grey brown in colour, Stain 91 elicited a strong positive reaction when forensic biologist Jae Gerhard and her two colleagues found it in Mr Xie’s garage.
The discovery of Stain 91 was described in the final summing up of the Crown case in the murder trial of Mr Xie, as its nears its end.
Prosecutor Kate Ratcliffe said that the three forensic biologists found the stain after they removed a tallboy in the garage’s southwestern corner.
“They divided up the floor and commenced their examination on their hands and knees,” Ms Ratcliffe told the court.
She said Ms Gerhard, who was trained in blood stain pattern analysis, believed Stain 91 looked like a transfer stain, from coming in contact with an object — “clothing, a weapon or a bag” wet with blood.
She said in a conversation with a person known as “Witness A” in 2012, Mr Xie had indicated there had been “no problem” with his wife on the night of the murders because of mild sedation.
Questioned about that night, Kathy Lin had later said she had nothing to drink after returning home from the Boundary Road house of the Lin family at 10.30pm and before going to bed at 2am.
Ms Lin said she either couldn’t remember or that she didn’t normally drink anything before bedtime.But a surveillance video recording inside the couple’s home on May 6, 2010 showed her heating up warm milk.
She said that on the night of May 6, 2010 the surveillance video showed Ms Xie flushing ASICS brand shoe boxes down the toilet to destroy evidence.
He had done this, the Crown alleged, after learning he was a suspect in the Lin family murders.Ms Smith told the court that Mr Xie was “destroying the last link” to the ASICS brand shoes he allegedly wore on the night of the murders.
“She was not going to say anything that she thought could be used against her husband.”Ms Smith told the jury it was also the Crown’s case that Mr Xie had coached his wife about the murder scene, telling her what to say about the discovery of the bodies. A recorded conversation between the two in Mandarin had Mr Xie saying to his wife, “I was here ... The door was like this ...” and discussing who could see what in the house.
“Clearly they are discussing their positions upon the discovery of the bodies,” Ms Smith said.
Mr Xie’s defence counsel, Robert Webb, is due to present the summing up his case that Mr Xie is not guilty of the murders later this week.
http://www.news.com.au/national/cou...s/news-story/128801ad62b12979c2547416faa1a24d
I think that with this blood stain, proof of his destruction of the ASICS shoe boxes, coaching of his wife by Xie, and lying about Kathy Lin not being sedated on the night, it all points to Robert Xie being the perpetrator. I think they have got it right this time and I cannot see why the jury would not find him guilty.
The Defence case has probably been presented by now but I cannot find any MSM articles on it, can you?
