Beowulf trial: Jury told of allegedly missing rug

The rug is critical to the Crown case against the Archibald Prize finalist Melissa Beowulf, 61, and her two sons Thorsten, 32, and Bjorn, 31, who have denied murdering their family matriarch.

The red kilim rug is significant because the Crown alleges Katherine Panin, 82, was struck and bled on it and that the three accused removed it before authorities arrived on the day she died.

It's alleged they hid the rug in a storage unit before having it dry cleaned.

The Crown case is that Mrs Panin was struck and either left to die or smothered before her body was arranged on the bottom of the stairs.

Authorities were called to the family home in Red Hill after reports Mrs Panin had fallen down the stairs and died, but police later launched a murder investigation.

A half-brother of the two men accused of the murder told a jury yesterday that there was no rug in the hallway when he had arrived home following Mrs Panin's death on October 12, 2015.

He had found a pool of vomit in the hallway which he covered with towels. The court has heard Thorsten Beowulf told Mr Beowulf-McGowan through a bathroom door that he was feeling sick.

But under cross examination by the defence on Thursday, Niels Beowulf-McGowan said while he didn't remember the rug being there, that could be wrong.

The court heard that when police asked Mr Beowulf-McGowan if he had noticed anything out of place when he arrived home that day he had said no.

And when speaking to prosecutors before the trial he had told them of a pool of vomit "partly on a bit of rug". He also said there was vomit on the carpet.

Mr Beowulf McGowan agreed under defence questioning that he remembered saying different things about that rug and that it had been three years between the conversations.

He also denied discussing the significance of the rug with his mother, who has already given evidence.

The trial continues.