In the days and weeks after his wife Jodie went missing, Steve Frank Fesus was allegedly concerned with two things: getting the full single parent pension and keeping custody of Jodie's toddler, a court has heard.
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But as Jodie was officially missing, the social security department would only authorise a partial, temporary payment.
Fesus was the last person to see Jodie, 18, alive before she went missing sometime between the night of August 11 and the morning of August 12, 1997. He has pleaded not guilty to her murder and denies any involvement in her death or burial in a shallow beach grave.
A NSW Supreme Court jury heard on Tuesday that by September 11, 1997 Fesus had only 34 cents in the bank. That evening, Ms Fesus's mother Gai Smith told him she wanted to take her grandchild with her.
Three days later police received an anonymous phone call from a male voice who reported finding human remains at Seven Mile Beach at Gerroa.
Police discovered Mrs Fesus's body partially uncovered buried in a shallow grave.
After her body was identified, Fesus returned to the Department of Social Security and told staff his wife was no longer missing, but was deceased. On a prior visit, he had ticked the "no" box on a form asking if the other parent was still living, before changing it to "yes" when questioned by staff.
In his opening address, Crown Prosecutor Jose Crespo said Fesus had reason for his wife's body to be found.
"If the body was located he could tick the deceased box and benefits could be paid," Mr Crespo said.
"He went to the beach to uncover her body so it would be discovered."
The couple, who met in 1995 and married in May 1997, had been having difficulties and Mr Crespo described their relationship as "fractious".
However, Fesus's barrister Nicole Carroll said that would be disputed.
"He did not kill his wife. He did not bury her. He did not return to uncover her," Ms Carroll said in her opening address.
"He had no motive to kill his wife.”
The jury heard Fesus was charged in July 2013 after he confessed to a police officer that he had killed his wife.
"I strangled her from behind...It wasn't a struggle or anything," he allegedly said.
However, Ms Carroll cautioned jurors about the "reliability of this said confession".
The trial continues.