Yoke Onn Chi's son did not recognise the lifeless body he found lying on the floor inside his family home.
Shen Chi, then aged 25, had just driven home from working at Mount Buller and he planned to spend the weekend with his dad, who was usually working at China Bar in Northland Shopping Centre.
When he arrived home to Templestowe Lower about 11pm on January 31, 2020, Shen noticed his dad's car was parked in the driveway, with the garage and front door to the house open.
He opened the door and saw two feet, then a man's body. The man's face had been so badly mutilated that Shen did not realise the person lying in a pool of blood was his father.
"There was lots of blood everywhere and I couldn't depict that was my dad's face because it was full of blood, all over the face. I couldn't believe it," he told a Supreme Court jury on Thursday.
Shen yelled out for his father, thinking he was in another room or out at the back of the house. Eventually, he realised the deceased man was his father and called triple zero.
Alexander Wong, 42, has been charged with the murder of Mr Chi, 56, and is facing a month-long jury trial after he pleaded not guilty. He claims he was in bed at home on the night Mr Chi was killed.
Shen said his uncle, Mr Chi's brother, was creator of the China Bar franchise, which opened in 1996 and has since grown to more than a dozen restaurants across Victoria. Mr Chi had managed the Preston branch since 2014.
Prosecutors allege Wong murdered Mr Chi in a jealous rage as he believed he was having an affair with his wife.
There are no direct witnesses to the crime and the prosecution is relying on circumstantial evidence.
The jury previously heard Wong is alleged to have entered Mr Chi's home via the garage and waited for him to return home from work, using a rubber mallet to beat him to death.
Wong's barrister James McQuillan has questioned DNA evidence, including shoe imprints and a glove found at his client's home that he claims was planted.
Earlier on Thursday, senior forensic pathologist Sarah Parsons told the jury Mr Chi died from blunt force trauma to the head, which could have been from a rubber mallet or another object such as a bat.
She also said the injuries, which included broken bones across his face, may have been inflicted by stomping.
Police visited Wong at his home the morning after Mr Chi's death, where the accused said he knew Mr Chi and he had "f***** my wife in my own home and I really hate him but what can I do. Who'd do that?"
The trial continues.
