A jury has heard how a farmer discovered the body of Lee McKnight face down in a Carlisle river after hearing a vehicle drive past his property at dawn.
Michael Irving made the gruesome discovery just after 5am on July 24 last year.
Mr Irving told police how he heard the sound of wheels on small stones, looked out of window and saw a black four-wheel drive vehicle 100 yards from his house heading down a lane towards fields.
“The vehicle was not speeding but was travelling faster than it should have been considering the path it was travelling on,” he said in a statement.
Mr Irving then heard a ping which he believed was the noise of a broken gate.
He got on a quad bike, stopped to pick up a broken lock and chain, and also picked up a piece of plastic — maybe from the bumper of a vehicle, he said.
He followed fresh tyre tracks, found another gate was open and fed the cattle – some of which he had rounded up after they strayed from a field.
Mr Irving then followed more tracks which he saw leading to the River Caldew before getting over a fence and looking towards the water close to a pipe bridge.
“This is when I have noticed the body face down in the river,” he said.
“I have noticed there had been some flattened grass as if something had been dragged down the bank.”
Mr Irving dialled 999 at 5.23am and left the scene, noticing an ambulance at the top of a hill beside his farm soon after.
Six people — four men and a mother-and-daughter — deny murdering 26-year-old Mr McKnight and are on trial at Carlisle Crown Court.
A pathologist found the cause of his death was drowning, due to head, neck and chest injuries, and concluded he sustained a prolonged and very severe beating before being transported to the river and placed in the water while still alive.
The trial continues.
