A drunk ambulance officer banged on a neighbour's door and searched the premises for his wife late on the night she disappeared 40 years ago, his murder trial has been told.
John Douglas Bowie returned a second time when he shared a few beers with Eddie Ovens, his partner Ruth Ovens told police.
"He didn't seem to be very worried about it or distraught," she said in her record of interview read out to the NSW Supreme Court jury on Friday.
Bowie, 72, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Roxlyn Bowie, who was 31 when she vanished from their Walgett home in northern NSW.
The Crown alleges he killed his wife on or about June 5, 1982 so he could have an unfettered relationship with another woman.
Her body has never been found.
In her interview, Ms Ovens - who has since died - said she and her family lived in a caravan in the back yard of the Bowies' property, while her son lived in a smaller one beside it.
She said Roxlyn Bowie was a good mother to her young daughter and son, while her husband had a normal relationship with the children.
The couple seemed to have a normal marriage, having "their domestics just like anyone else" and she had never seen Bowie being physically violent to his wife or children.
On the night of Saturday, June 5 she and her partner had gone out for a few drinks, before returning to the caravan about 8pm when she cooked tea.
"We were watching TV when John Bowie came down and banged on the door later that night," she said.
"It had to be 11 o'clock, it was very late."
When her partner invited him in, Bowie asked if his wife was there and she told him no.
"He said 'I bet she's hiding here'."
They took him through the caravan where he looked in the bedroom and the shower.
Ms Ovens said she asked him where the children were and he replied they were in bed.
She went back to the house with him and searched for Roxlyn, including looking under the bed.
She noticed her clothes, make-up, jewellery and other possessions were in the house.
"I said she can't be far away, she wouldn't leave the kids alone."
She noticed a note under a sugar bowl on the kitchen table but told police she could not remember what it said.
Bowie's daughter, Brenda Boyd - was was aged six at the time - has told the jury that when she asked where her mother was on the Sunday morning her father told her he had found a note.
"He said she was sorry and she had to leave and he didn't know where she was," she testified.
Ms Ovens told police she returned to the caravan after looking for Roxlyn in the house, before Bowie turned up again about half an hour or longer later.
She could not say whether Bowie drove off anywhere in the car between the two visits.
When he returned, he had half a dozen cans of beer in a paper bag.
She said when Bowie first turned up it was obvious he had had quite a bit to drink and she could smell alcohol on him.
"To me he seemed fairly intoxicated," she said.
The trial continues before Justice Dina Yehia.
