Pools of blood soaked into the floorboards underneath Chinese restaurant boss Yoke Onn Chi's body when he was found bludgeoned to death inside his home.
Blood spatters covered walls, doorknobs and light switches.
How then, a lawyer has asked, did police fail to find traces of blood when they scoured the alleged murderer's car and house?
Alexander MinVui Wong, 42, has been charged with the murder of Mr Chi, 56, who was found dead by his son at the entrance to his Templestowe Lower home, northeast of Melbourne, on January 31, 2020.
He has pleaded not guilty to murder and is facing a month-long jury trial in the Supreme Court.
Prosecutors allege Wong killed Mr Chi in jealous rage as he believed the owner of China Bar in Preston's Northland Shopping Centre was having an affair with his estranged wife, Penny Chung.
Crown barrister Mark Gibson KC on Tuesday said Wong had discovered communication between Mr Chi and Ms Chung after she moved home to Malaysia, two weeks before Mr Chi's death, which led Wong to believe they were having an affair.
He alleged Wong had laid in wait inside Mr Chi's home until he returned from closing his restaurant, before attacking him with a rubber mallet.
Wong then went back to his Heidelberg West home where he drank cider, vomited and ate McDonald's with his housemate, Mr Gibson said.
Mr Chi's son arrived home from work at about 11pm to find his father's body lying in a pool of blood. He called police and told them about a disagreement his father had with a man named Alex.
At 6.22am the next morning, police knocked on Wong's door. He told them Mr Chi had "f***** my wife in my own home and I really hate him but what can I do. Who'd do that?".
There are no direct witnesses to the killing and the prosecution is relying on circumstantial evidence such as CCTV, text messages and DNA evidence.
Wong's barrister James McQuillan said his client denied ever being inside Mr Chi's home that night. He claimed he did not leave his house and had stayed at home in bed.
"It wasn't him, it could have been somebody else," he told the jury on Wednesday.
He questioned how police never found a trace of blood on or around his client, considering the crime scene was covered in blood.
"Its a bloody murder that results in blood everywhere at the scene," Mr McQuillan said.
"In the end the police, you'll hear, did not find one trace of blood in his car. No blood was found on his clothing, in his house."
He said there were pieces missing from the prosecution's "jigsaw puzzle", including issues around DNA evidence and that shoe imprints found near Mr Chi's body were not actually Wong's size.
Further, Mr McQuillan alleged someone may have planted a black glove found at Wong's house, which prosecutors claimed had Mr Chi's DNA on it.
The trial continues.
