In March 1986 Ina-Doris Warrick returned to work after the death of her husband from bowel cancer.
She was working as an agency nurse at hospitals across Melbourne's north and east and was eager to return to Box Hill Hospital, where she worked before she died.
But she never made it to her shift on March 22. Ms Warrick's body was found in her Ringwood home by a neighbour days later.
The last person to admit seeing her alive was her friend Colin Graham, a hospital orderly who is now standing trial for her murder.
Graham, then 30, took 25-year-old Ms Warrick out for dinner on March 21, 1986.
It's alleged he murdered her after driving her home. Prosecutors say Graham has confessed to others that he played a role in Ms Warrick's death.
He has pleaded not guilty.
His barrister Malcolm Thomas told a jury in Victoria's Supreme Court they must consider the actions and behaviour of another man - anaesthesiologist Greg Stewart, who was in a relationship with Ms Warrick.
He had spent time with her on the day she is thought to have been killed and went to her house to check on her over the weekend, leaving a note telling her to "knock them dead at Box Hill".
Dr Stewart was the first person to find her body, but didn't tell anyone until two days after police first spoke to him.
He opened her unlocked front door on the Sunday night and saw her on the bed. He left and returned a short time later to confirm what he had seen was real. Dr Stewart took the note he had written and left again.
A neighbour reported Ms Warrick's death to police on March 25.
Graham told police he learned of Ms Warrick's death on the news and immediately called police to say he had seen her on the Friday night.
Prosecutor Robyn Harper said Graham has since told people he was involved in Ms Warrick's death.
She said he told security guard friend Craig Maddaford he was "very taken" by a nurse in Ringwood and completely broke down telling her he couldn't do anything to save her.
Ms Harper said Graham allegedly told another man he had done a murder and hadn't got caught.
She said in late 2012 he told a man, known as Witness Q, he killed a woman named Ina-Doris because she didn't want to have sex with him.
"You'll hear that the accused also said when he killed her, he never felt so alive in his life and that no woman would ever say no to him," she said.
Graham was arrested in 2018, three years after a cold case investigation was re-opened.
The trial is continuing.
