A cousin of Cork woman Tina Satchwell has told the Central Criminal Court that she never saw her be violent or aggressive to her husband, Richard.
Mr Satchwell has pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife in March 2017.
Her remains were found buried under the stairs more than six-and-a-half years later.
Sarah Howard also told the court she found an offer by Mr Satchwell more than a week after his wife disappeared, to give her a freezer for free, very strange as he would not be the type to give stuff away.
In her evidence, Ms Howard told the court she was very close to Tina Satchwell when she was growing up.
She said they would have spent a lot of time together, swimming, walking the dog, going around Fermoy together. She described her cousin as a kind hearted, loving, family person who loved animals and was bubbly and sociable.
Ms Howard was shown clips of her speaking on a Prime Time Investigates programme broadcast in January 2018 in which she said it was tearing the family apart not knowing where Tina was.
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She said in the programme that Tina had never gone missing before and what had happened to her was a complete mystery.
Ms Howard told the court she did not see as much of Tina when she moved to Youghal in May 2016 as her cousin did not drive.
She said the last time she saw her was just before Christmas that year. She described Ms Satchwell as being in great form and very happy.
She had her dogs with her and Ms Howard said Tina "didn’t go anywhere without the dogs".
Ms Howard said she found out Tina was missing when her mother told her on 26 March 2017.
She said she tried to ring Tina and then rang Richard's phone. Ms Howard said it was very unusual that Tina had not brought the dogs.
She said Mr Satchwell said they had had an argument and that she had left him. She said he told her Tina had thrown a cup or something at him.
She said she had never heard that before.
Ms Howard also read a number of texts between herself and Mr Satchwell from March to July 2017. In many of them Ms Howard asked if Mr Satchwell had any news of Tina.
On 30 March, Mr Satchwell asked her if she wanted "our big chest freezer".
Ms Howard became upset and she said she did not respond to that message. She told prosecuting counsel, Gerardine Small, that it was "very unusual" as he would not be the type to just give away stuff.
She added that once at a car boot sale, her two children visited Richard's stall and he had charged them 50 cent each for nail varnish and a CD they picked up.
So, when offered something like that for free, she thought it was very unusual.
Ms Howard told Ms Small she had never witnessed Tina being violent or aggressive.
Under cross examination from defence counsel, Brendan Grehan, Ms Howard said her first memories of Tina and Richard Satchwell were when she was very young - around five or six years old.
She said she used to spend a lot of time with Tina – who used to take her off and bring her down town.
She said Tina got her ears pierced when she was around four or five. She agreed that she was like a favourite aunite and her loss had affected her very deeply.
She agreed that she had described Richard as being obsessed and besotted with Tina and could not have caused her harm, in a statement she had made in August 2020. But she said that was before Ms Satchwell’s remains were found.
She said that Tina did not really use her phone but might just turn up at the house. She said she had never been to her house in Youghal.
Ms Howard said this was because Tina was very house proud and did not want anyone in the house until renovations had been done.
Ms Howard agreed that Tina was very close to her grandmother who had raised her. She said Tina would have called her grandmother her mother. Ms Howard said she was aware she had fallen out with her mother.
Asked if she was resentful because her mother had given her up to be reared by her grandmother, Ms Howards said she could not say.
She said she did not believe Tina was violent and had never personally seen her to be violent to Mr Satchwell. Asked if she knew if other people in her family had seen such violence, she said she was not sure.
She agreed that Mr Satchwell had delivered a birthday card to her in August 2017, five months after Tina’s disappearance. The card was signed off with "Tina and Richard" to their "favourite niece" and there were two photographs enclosed.
Earlier the court heard that Mr Satchwell contacted gardaí in July 2017 to tell them he had seen two suitcases in the recycling area of the Tesco car park in Youghal, which he said were very similar to two suitcases Tina had with her on the day he said she left the house.
Garda Susan Nolan said she met Mr Satchwell in the car park and he told her the suitcases were similar but were not actually theirs.
Garda David Kelleher told the court Mr Satchwell had made contact with a company offering certificates of professional competence in driving on 23 March 2017, the day before he reported his wife missing, to book a course which was to take place on 25 March.
Garda Kelleher also told the court, Mr Satchwell had been in custody ever since his arrest in October 2023.
The jurors were told the prosecution case has finished and they would not be required for the rest of the afternoon as the defence has an application to make.
They will return to court tomorrow morning.
