Teenage girl with 'short' hair seen about the same time Michelle Bright disappeared, witness says

A jury has heard two teenagers were seen walking in the dark around the time 17-year-old Michelle Bright disappeared in 1999. A witness said the pair was walking along the same road Ms Bright's body was found four days later.

Craig Henry Rumsby is on trial for the alleged murder of Ms Bright in 1999 as well as an alleged sexual attack on another Gulgong teenager in 1998. Rumsby has pleaded not guilty to both charges.

The ninth day of the trial in Dubbo's Supreme court saw three witnesses take the stand on Monday, May 15.

Ms Bright has been named with the permission of her family.

In court on Monday, two witnesses said they did not know Ms Bright as of February 26, 1999, including Lindee West who recalls seeing a couple of teenagers while driving that night.

The court also heard Ms West would not be able to recognise Ms Bright if she saw her.

Crown prosecutor Lee Carr SC (Senior Counsel) asked Ms West to describe what she was doing that night. She told the court she was visiting family in Gulgong that weekend along with her husband and daughter.

Ms West had been at the Prince of Wales Hotel with her sister-in-law until the pub closed at midnight. They both had not consumed any alcohol. Ms West then drove with her sister-in-law in the passenger seat to pick up her daughter and return to her sister-in-law's home on Barneys Reef Road.

Barneys Reef Road is also where the Bright family lived. During the course of the trial, a number of witnesses were asked if they saw Ms Bright walking home along that road on February 27, 1999.

Between 12.15am and 1am on Saturday, February 27, 1999, Ms West said she saw a boy aged about 17 and a girl between 16 to 18 years old walking along Medley Street near the Herbert Street junction.

"I thought it was a horse so I slowed down and put my high beams on," Ms West said.

"You said something like 'look at these bloody idiots'," defence barrister Nicholas Broadbent said.

"Because they were in all black," Ms West said. "It was pitch dark."

She said they were walking on the right side of the street and the boy was about five feet seven inches tall while the girl "came up to his ear". The teenagers were not known to Ms West.

She confirmed they were both "Caucasian" in appearance and said the girl had a "chubby build", a round face with her hair in a "short ponytail".

"Her hair was not long, I think her hair was wavy," Ms West said.

The court heard she went to Mudgee Police Station with this information on August 9, 2002, after 'it clicked' in her mind that she had seen the teenagers in the early hours of February 27, 1999, and not February 26.

Ms West also remembered the boy wore a tracksuit with a "fluro" band on his upper arm. She said it was possible that she also saw "reflective" triangles on the heels of shoes worn by both of them.

The court was shown four photos of the area where Medley and Herbert Streets joined in north Gulgong. Ms West marked a blue 'x' near a tin "fence", where she remembers seeing the pair of teenagers on February 27, 1999.

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