Judgement is to be passed on Thursday on William Nkuna, accused of having murdered missing Constable Frances Rasuge.
Judge Ronald Hendricks heard closing arguments on Tuesday from prosecutor Johann Smit and defence attorney Post Moloto in the Mmabatho Circuit Court sitting in Ga-Rankuwa.
The trial began last week with the state presenting circumstantial evidence from a number of witnesses.
Nkuna, the only defence witness, took the stand on Monday.
Rasuge was last seen on August 27 last year in Nkuna’s company outside a hair salon in Themba, north of Pretoria.
In his closing argument, Smit said it is up to ”the common sense of the court” to infer from the evidence put forward by the state that Rasuge is dead and that it is Nkuna who killed her.
He said the state has successfully put forward evidence proving that Rasuge had a happy family and professional life and that she had no reason to ”suddenly disappear”.
He said it has also been proved the two had a turbulent relationship, that Nkuna used Rasuge’s cellphone and that he withdrew money from her account days after she went missing.
Moloto said Nkuna and Rasuge parted happily on the last day she was seen alive.
”We need to ask where are the traces of violence on that particular day,” Moloto said.
He argued that besides the protection order allegedly issued against Nkuna by Rasuge in May last year — which Nkuna said he never received — there is no other indication of violence or friction between the two.
Moloto also argued that there is a chance that Rasuge is still alive or that if she has been killed, it may not have been intentional.
He urged the court to consider the possibility of a culpable homicide or that Rasuge is still alive before considering a murder conviction. — Sapa