WINNIPEG - Two large, dark-reddish stains photographed by police in Mark Stobbe's garage were not there in the days before his wife was killed, the victim's sister testified Thursday.

"I don't recall seeing that stain," Betty Rowbotham told court as she was shown a photo, described by Crown attorney Wendy Dawson as "blood-like," on the floor of Stobbe's garage.

When shown another photo showing a stain on a garage wall and asked whether she had ever seen it, Rowbotham replied she had — a few days after her sister's death.

"There was a stain on the wall in the garage area. My (other) sister Barb showed me."

Rowbotham also testified her sister Beverly was neat and would have cleaned up such stains.

The photos were taken after Beverly Rowbotham's violent death in October 2000. RCMP combed the sprawling rural home and property that Rowbotham and Stobbe had recently moved into north of Winnipeg.

Stobbe, a one-time senior adviser to former Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow, was charged with second-degree murder in 2008 and has pleaded not guilty. Stobbe and Rowbotham, along with their two young sons, had moved to Manitoba in 2000 for Stobbe's new job as a senior communications adviser with the Manitoba government.

Police found dozens of blood drops, bone fragments, clumps of hair and other material in the garage and backyard. Eleven of those items would later be linked by DNA testing to the deceased. Defence lawyer Tim Killeen appeared to suggest earlier this week that some of the material may be linked to an old tree stump in the backyard which the family used as a chopping block.

The Crown alleges Stobbe killed his wife during a heated argument in the family's backyard by hitting her in the head 16 times with a hatchet. The Crown's theory is that Stobbe then dragged his wife to one of the family's two cars in the garage, hit her at least one more time, drove to Selkirk, Man., then bicycled back home and reported her missing hours later.

The Crown's case is circumstantial. There were no witnesses to the death and, so far, there have been no witnesses who saw the couple in the preceding hours.

On Wednesday, Betty said her sister and Stobbe's marriage appeared strained after they moved from Regina. But under cross-examination Thursday, she could not point to any arguments and agreed that the couple had been seen hugging at a family picnic in September 2000.

"She and Mark were obviously getting along very well," Killeen suggested. "Was it your impression that this was a happy, normal family?"

"They presented as less happy than in Regina, but more happy than in the summer," Betty replied.

She testified she talked to her sister on the phone the night of her death about going to a concert later that week. Beverly was busy trying to get her kids out of the bath and into bed.

"She was kind of breathless. I could hear (Beverly's son) Nick crying in the background.

"She said...he had gotten out of the bathtub and she had to go."

Two hours later, Betty received a phone call from Stobbe, who asked for a recommendation about contractors who could install bathroom flooring. He spoke in "an ordinary manner, an ordinary voice," she told court.

Then, around 2:30 in the morning, Stobbe called again to say his wife was missing.

"He told me Bev had gone shopping," she recalled.

"He had gone to sleep with the boys and had woken up and all the lights were on. He said he called the police and the hospitals."

Betty, who lived about 10 minutes away, drove over and was met by Stobbe at the front door.

"It looked like he had a bit of an acne flare-up on one side of his face...red pimples," she said.

By now, police were searching for Stobbe's wife. Betty sat in the house while Stobbe's children slept. That's when he went to the backyard for "30 or 40 minutes," according to Betty.

That period of time may be crucial to the trial. The Crown alleges Stobbe took a hose and tried to wash away evidence in the backyard.

Under cross-examination, Betty admitted Stobbe may have been out for as little as 10 minutes, but she "thought it was more."

Shortly after Stobbe re-entered the house, police came to deliver the news that Beverly Rowbotham had been found dead.

Betty said she stayed by Stobbe, "holding his hand and patting his head." As the day wore on, people came by to offer condolences and support, including Donne Flanagan, director of communications for then-premier Gary Doer.

Sometime after the death, police focused on Stobbe and wire-tapped his phone. On Feb 28, 2001, they told Betty that they had determined her sister had been killed in the backyard and that they had recorded a call Betty made from her house to Stobbe's.

In the recording, played in court Thursday, Betty tells Stobbe that police are focusing on the backyard. He sighs heavily, then swears. As Betty continues to talk about the backyard, Stobbe utters "damn it all," sighs a few more times, and swears one more time.

"Oh man, I feel horrible" he says toward the end of the brief conversation.

"Are you going to be OK?" Betty asks.

"Not completely, but I'll get through," he answers.

Stobbe's trial is scheduled to run until the end of March.