The massive investigation into the murder of police chief Colin Winchester included searches on horseback for the murder weapon and camouflaged officers hiding in the botanic gardens, a jury heard Monday.
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Richard Ninness was the senior detective on the case and he took the stand on Monday to detail the investigation that followed the shooting of Mr Winchester on January 10, 1989.
He said a flood of information fell to police after the death, and from the chaos that followed the detectives drew multiple lines of inquiry and multiple potential suspects.
There was the inquiry into Mr Winchester's family, the bikies inquiry, a police and ex-police inquiry and a personal grudge inquiry, the professional hit man inquiry (non-Italian) and Italian inquiry.
At the bottom of the police list was former public servant David Harold Eastman, 72, now on trial accused of the murder of Mr Winchester. He has pleaded not guilty.
"Our first thought was the mafia, of course," Mr Ninness told the court.
He said Mr Winchester had been involved in an operation between ACT and NSW police that involved posing as a corrupt police officer to offer protection to cannabis growers in Bungendore.
The cannabis growers were later arrested and put before court, and police understood there was a sense Mr Winchester had not protected them enough.
Mr Ninness said police had also bugged the homes and phones of Italian figures, and had travelled to Italy and Adelaide to interview people but found no evidence to assist the murder investigation.
Police also concluded Mr Winchester's wife and brother and other family members had nothing to do with the murder. The personal grudge inquiry also found no link to the murder, and nor did the inquiry into police.
Mr Ninness told the ACT Supreme Court that by 1992 police had "cleared the deck" of all other potential suspects as having no connection to Mr Winchester's murder.
Mr Eastman too was the subject of surveillance and search warrants.
Police tracked him all across Canberra, largely on foot, because he rarely drove the car he owned but preferred to walk and cycle.
Officers in camouflage hid in the Botanical Gardens, where they knew Mr Eastman would frequent.
In one conversation with police in the city, Mr Eastman told the officers he was not bothered by the surveillance but remarked that it must be consuming a lot of police resources.
They searched his home and car.
During the execution of a search warrant at his house, police recorded a conversation with Mr Eastman and questioned his inability to account for his whereabouts on two hours on the night of the murder.
That tape, with classical music from the radio playing in the background, was played to the jury.
"I've given them all the assistance that I can and that's the end of it," Mr Eastman is heard to say, with reference to an earlier visit by two police officers. "If I could assist you more I would."
Mr Ninness also told the court that police door-knocked the whole suburb of Deakin for the investigation and spoke to 1227 people in the process. They stopped hundreds of cars in and around the neighbourhood.
They collected information from hotels and motels about who had been staying in the week's surrounding Mr Winchester's death.
They searched the ACT widely on horseback and with diving teams in Lake Burley Griffin, Coppins Crossing, Scrivener Dam and the botanic gardens for the murder weapon.
More than 621 Ruger 10/22s were collected and test fired, and police looked at 1208 advertisements in relation to Ruger 10/22s. The Crown alleges the murder weapon was a Ruger 10/22.
The murder weapon was never found.
The trial continues.
