A man accused of killing his wife thought he knew how to commit murder without leaving any trace but failed to realise his mobile phone could give him away, a court heard yesterday.

No signs of violence on her body except for blood that had trickled out of her nose and mouth

Barely a month before lawyer Margaret Mifsud was found dead, her former husband threateningly asked her if she wanted to know how to kill someone without being found out.

The detail was just one thread of a much larger blanket of circumstantial evidence the police believe wraps tightly around 34-year-old Nizar El Gadi, who stands charged with murdering 31-year-old Dr Mifsud, who had two young girls.

She was found dead in her car on April 19 in suspicious circumstances.

There were no signs of violence on her body except for blood that had trickled out of her nose and mouth, the court heard.

Police Inspector Keith Arnaud described how a thorough three-month long investigation into the woman’s death led investigators to piece together what had happened.

Court experts’ reports contradicted what Mr Gadi was telling the police about his whereabouts on the night Dr Mifsud died, Mr Arnaud said.

The victim’s body was found in the driver’s seat in a driving position with her head leaning on the window.

Blood oozing out of her mouth indicated that it had flowed upwards and settled under her eye leading the police to believe that she had died while lying down, the inspector said. In his statement to the police, the accused painted a picture of a happy family with him being on good terms with Dr Mifsud and their two young daughters, which was far from the truth, the prosecuting officer noted.

The police had found a one-page hand written note by Dr Mifsud at her house recounting a terrifying incident last March 24 when Mr Gadi tried to strangle her.

While doing so he asked her whether she would like to know how to kill someone without leaving a trace.

The accused denied that the incident, which is the subject of another court case, had happened.

Just two days before the incident, he had jumped into her car as she waited for her children to come out of school and pressured her to take them to the swings in a park but she refused.

The following day he did the same thing, this time demanding the family would eat at Pizza Hut. When the children heard him mention pizza they too insisted they should go and in fact that is what they had done.

Husband found in luggage boot

Some months back, Dr Mifsud had just finished in court and went to her car only to get the fright of her life when she opened the luggage boot to find Mr Gadi inside. He told her that he always knew where she was and what she was doing, the witness said.

On the day she died, Mr Gadi had hired a car for a one day telling the police that he wanted to operate a taxi service to try and make some quick cash.

He also used a different mobile phone, a pink Samsung, when he normally used a Blackberry phone, something which was also suspicious to the police.

He claimed that his Blackberry and a third phone, an iPhone 4, needed to be recharged, so he switched phones.

The most incriminating evidence came when mobile phone experts proved that the accused was following her on the night she died, Mr Arnaud said.

On April 18, she picked up a close friend at about 8.30 p.m. from her house in Buġibba to go and eat with friends at the Fortress restaurant in Xemxija.

An hour later his mobile phone was located close to the roundabout near the Olympic Garden just opposite the restaurant.

At 11.22 p.m., Dr Mifsud’s group left the restaurant and, at 11.30 p.m., Dr Mifsud dropped off her friend at her home in Buġibba. At the same time, Mr Gadi’s phone was located as being in the same road, meaning he had followed her, the officer said. The accused had told the police that, earlier in the evening, the victim had asked him to go to her house in Birkirkara so that she could hand over his updated curriculum vitae which she had promised to do for him.

He said that he went to the house at 7.45 p.m. and waited for her to come out. When she emerged from her house Mr Gadi claimed that she told him that she had sent a text message saying he did not need to go there because the CV was not ready yet.

Mr Gadi also told the police that they drove around the corner and had sex.

All this proved to be a lie because at the same time he claimed to have been in Birkirkara his mobile phone was located near Portomaso and then, a while later, in Mrieħel, Mr Arnaud testified.

In e-mails Dr Mifsud sent to a close friend, she described how her relationship with the accused was a “tragedy” saying that he is “killing her without a knife” by mocking her Roman Catholic religion and doing outrageous things in her presence.

“He tells the children how to talk, how to walk, how to eat, how to dress when they are just children” she told her friend.

In the messages, she also tells the friend that she feared him and what he was capable of doing. She was scared of leaving the island because he might take her family hostage but if her parents were dead she would do it.

Dr Mifsud also expressed her fear that the accused might take the children away from her by luring them to a boat and moving to another country, Mr Arnaud said.

The case continues on Monday.