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A dog walker has told a court of the moment she opened a bag lying on an Edinburgh path to find a decomposing head with dyed-red hair.Anita Anderson, a make-up artist, said she found the blue Ikea bag on Hogmanay 2008 by Hawthornvale Path in Newhaven.
Alan Cameron, 56, from Edinburgh, denies he murdered Heather Stacey, 44, at her flat in Granton, between the end of November and mid December 2007.
He has admitted hiding her body for about a year before chopping her up.
He has also admitted at the High Court in Livingston to leaving pieces of her body in bags in Edinburgh.
He has admitted he failed to report her death and concealed her body at Royston Mains Place, Granton, for 13 months.
Ms Anderson, 41, who was out with her dog at about 1000 BST on Hogmanay 2008, said the bag "looked like it had been placed there".
She said: "It didn't look like it had been there a long time. Being an inquisitive person I wanted to find out what it was.
"I tried to open out the bag with my gloves on and look inside .
"I opened the bag and I think I saw hair. The hair had a dyed look and an old look about it. The dye was certainly not something that was done recently. It was red.
"I work with wigs a lot and it didn't feel new.
"I felt a bit shaken and had to go back to the house.
"I hadn't noticed the smell at first, but when I got home the smell on my gloves was really overpowering."
Ms Anderson went home and returned to the scene with her partner, civil engineer Jem Kitchen, 47, who contacted the police. He said: "It was really badly decomposed. There was very little flesh on the face and it had no eyes. It was very grey and smelly in the bag."
The couple were giving evidence on the second day of the trial of Spar shop worker Mr Cameron.
Also giving evidence, David Docherty, 47, said he spoke to Mr Cameron on Hogmanay 2008.
He recalled: "I said to him that the police had found a head in a bag and asked him if he had heard about it. He said he hadn't, and shrugged his shoulders."
Jane Rattray, 44, a solicitor in Edinburgh, later said Ms Stacey visited as a client on 20 November 2007, as she wanted more contact with her two youngest children.
Mrs Rattray described Ms Stacey as someone who "didn't fit the mould of someone who had lost contact with her children".
She said: "Her problems seemed behind her, and she was clean."
The trial before Lord Matthews continues.This article is from the BBC News website. ? British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.