Lies, deception, an affair and prescription opiates are among the elements jurors will have to consider in the murder case of Melbourne nurse Ina-Doris Warrick.
The young widow was 35 when found dead inside her home, which she shared with her husband up to his death five months earlier from bowel cancer.
Her accused killer is Colin Graham, a friend from work who she had shared dinner with on the night of March 22, 1986.
He admits he drove her home after dinner and walked her to the front door at about 8.40pm.
But the prosecution's allegation that he followed her inside and killed her is in issue.
"The suggestion that he was in any way involved in her death is disputed," defence barrister Malcolm Thomas said.
Instead it's a man that Ms Warrick was in a relationship with - married anaesthetist Greg Stewart - who Mr Thomas suggested to jurors might be to blame
"The issue will be for you to decide whether you're satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Graham and not some other person - possibly Dr Stewart - killed Ms Warrick," Mr Thomas told Supreme Court jurors on Tuesday.
It's alleged Graham, then 30, killed Ms Warrick after driving her home from dinner at a pizza restaurant near her Ringwood home on the Friday night.
She had been eager to return to work at Box Hill Hospital at 10pm that night, but she never showed up for her shift.
A neighbour found her body and reported her death to police the following Tuesday.
But jurors heard the neighbour was not the first person who found Ms Warrick, but that Dr Stewart had made the discovery at the weekend.
Dr Stewart, who had earlier left a note telling his girlfriend to "knock them dead at Box Hill", went to Ms Warrick's home on Sunday night and found her body on the bed.
He left the house and drove down the road before returning. He took the note he had written and left again, the court was told.
Mr Thomas told jurors to consider that trip to Ms Warrick's house and whether it had even happened, or if it was a successful attempt to deflect the truth after Dr Stewart was repeatedly questioned in relation to her murder.
"One of the issues will be what actually are the lies and deceptions he engaged in and why, perhaps more importantly, did he engage in those lies and deceptions," Mr Thomas said.
He urged jurors to consider if his wife knew of his affair with Ms Warrick. He also asked them to consider Ms Warrick's use of opiate medications prescribed by Dr Stewart, whether he had a key to her home and whether it was common or not for him to visit her home in the late evenings.
"It all unfolds," Mr Thomas said.
The trial is set to continue on Wednesday.
