Four years to the day after his wife's death, a jury is deciding whether Andrew John Cobby is responsible for killing the woman he described as "the love of his life".
Evidence and summing up in the mammoth trial concluded on Friday after Cobby pleaded not guilty to murdering Gaylene, known as Kym, in the Gold Coast hinterland in November 2017.
Ms Cobby was repeatedly struck on the head with a hammer then strangled to death outside her Worongary home, and by his own version of events, her husband was with her.
But for three hours after her bloodied body was found Cobby failed to inform or warn their children who were in a house nearby.
Cobby admitted being present when his wife was attacked, but told police an unknown assailant was responsible.
He said - in interviews played during the 15-day trial - the couple had been threatened and faced demands for millions of dollars.
"I have four individuals trying to extort money, but I couldn't pay them," Cobby told officers.
People, including a private investigator, had been to the house Ms Cobby shared with her mother and brother-in-law looking for Cobby over the years, defence barrister Tony Kimmins told the jury on Wednesday.
But crown prosecutor Phillip McCarthy said Cobby's story to police was "just rubbish".
If Cobby's version was to be believed, the lives of himself, Ms Cobby and their children were in danger.
Instead Mr McCarthy argued the only person on the street that night who needed protection was Ms Cobby.
"And the only person she needed protection from was Andrew Cobby," he said in his closing address.
The couple had been married for more than three decades, but mostly lived apart from 2003 onwards.
Justice Peter Callaghan finished summing up on Friday, and the jury has retired to consider its verdict.
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