A retired garda sergeant has said a "thorough, formal" search of the home of Richard and Tina Satchwell took place in June 2017, after Ms Satchwell had been reported missing three months previously.
Mr Satchwell has pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife in March 2017.
Her remains were found underneath a floor in the sitting room of the couple's home in October 2023.
Mr Satchwell told gardaí she died after he held her off with a belt while she was trying to stab him in the head with a chisel.
Retired sergeant John Sharkey told the Central Criminal Court that he and other gardaí became suspicious that something "untoward" had happened to Ms Satchwell in May 2017, when no trace of her could be found.
Her husband told gardaí on 24 March 2017 that he had gone out on the morning of March 20th and when he returned, she was gone along with €26,000.
Mr Sharkey said gardaí had been monitoring the situation and concern had been rising about the welfare of Ms Satchwell.
On 11 May, Mr Satchwell formally reported his wife missing and the garda investigation was upgraded, with media appeals, and house to house inquiries carried out.
But Mr Sharkey said these appeals were "fruitless".
By the start of June, he formed the opinion that something criminal may have occurred.
On 7 June, having obtained a warrant, gardaí called to the marital home at Grattan Street in Youghal, to carry out a search.
Mr Satchwell was not home and a locksmith was used to open the house.
Under cross-examination from Mr Satchwell's defence counsel, Brendan Grehan, Mr Sharkey said it had been a "thorough, formal" search carried out by around ten gardaí.
He said he was in the house but did not actively participate in the operation which went on for about 12 hours.
Mr Sharkey agreed that full garda resources for a serious crime investigation were deployed at the house.
The trial also heard from scenes of crime investigator, Garda Cathal Whelan who took photographs of the house.
He described it as a three-storey, narrow building which was "untidy and unkempt". He said there were dog faeces on the floor and unwashed dishes on counter tops.
He said the stairs appeared to be made of relatively new, untreated, unpainted wood and the wall at the side was unpainted plasterboard which, he said, looked relatively new.
Mr Whelan said on the first floor there was a bathroom "which had a lot of clutter and untidiness".
He said the master bedroom on the second floor was also untidy with no paint on one wall. There were two rooms in the attic he said: one had shoes and handbags and there was a sunbed in the other.
Mr Whelan said he photographed a birdcage with a parrot in it, a railing of clothing with hundreds of outfits and a storage area under the stairs.
Retired garda Denis Barry also attended the search and also described the house as "very, very untidy and dirty".
He agreed that he recalled fresh plasterboard in the hallway. And he said it was fair to say there seemed to be a number of unfinished home improvement works, including a freshly bricked wall underneath the stairs.
Forensic scientist Dr Edward Connolly said he had examined stairwells, hallways and landings in the house with a chemical used to detect the presence of blood, but he said nothing was found.
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'Someone out there has to know something'
Inspector Daniel Holland told the court that he spoke to Mr Satchwell at Middleton Garda Station on the day after the house was searched.
He said Mr Satchwell attended the garda station voluntarily and gardaí wanted to speak to him about some of the items they found in the search.
Inspector Holland said Mr Satchwell told him he had given up a lot to be with Tina as his family did not approve of the relationship. He said that he had wanted to have children, and she did not.
He also told the inspector that she was very headstrong and determined. He said she had physically assaulted him and on two occasions had knocked him unconscious. Her most recent assault was the week before she went missing.
Mr Satchwell told Inspector Holland that he would never react to these assaults - he said he would drive away on his own and would have a cry, but he would never physically retaliate. He said he had long accepted this "dark side".
He also said he had had conversations with Tina about her mental health and asked her to seek help, but she did not want to.
He told gardaí he fully expected her to return. But he was worried that the publicity surrounding her disappearance might be an obstacle to her returning because she would be afraid people would ridicule her for leaving.
He said the reason he had waited four days to report her missing was because she had stated that if she ever left him and he came looking for her, she would ring the guards on him.
The jury heard that gardaí had asked Mr Satchwell about a number of documents relating to Western Union money transfers.
Inspector Holland said these were for quite substantial amounts, in the thousands. He said Mr Satchwell did not really explain the transfers except that they related to the couple's wish to purchase or adopt marmoset monkeys.
He said they were having difficulty in doing so.
However Inspector Holland said Mr Satchwell said it would all be explained in the emails contained on laptops seized by gardaí in the search of the house.
The court was also told that Mr Satchwell said the bulk of the €26,000 in savings he alleged Ms Satchwell had taken from the house came from the proceeds of car boot sales.
He said the couple got €100 to €150 a week from selling items at these sales and he said they were saving the money for a central heating system.
He said they kept the money in a tin box in the house. Mr Satchwell said when he came home on 20 March to find his wife missing, the tin box was there but the money was gone. He said he subsequently sold the box at a car boot sale.
In his report on the conversation, Inspector Holland said Mr Satchwell was "easy to talk to" and that he showed genuine emotion at various stages of the interview.
The jury then watched clips of various television and radio interviews given by Mr Satchwell.
In an RTÉ interview with Southern Editor Paschal Sheehy, Mr Satchwell described his wife as the most amazing person he had ever come across.
He said he wished she would get in touch with him. He said he was getting more and more worried and was extremely concerned.
"Someone out there has to know something," he said.
He also appealed directly to his wife to come home. He said his arms were open, their pets were missing her like crazy and that they needed her back.
He also spoke to independent.ie in an interview in which he said he had nothing to hide and again appealed to his wife to get in touch with somebody.
Mr Satchwell gave a lengthy interview to Cork radio station 96FM in which he said his dream was that his wife would turn up as suddenly as she had left.
He said he had been told gardaí always had to rule the partner out first - but he said they had not told him that they had ruled him out.
The jury is expected to continue listening to media interviews tomorrow.
