The daughter of Louise Bell's alleged killer says her father had a habit of changing the subject when she questioned him about the Adelaide schoolgirl's abduction.
Dieter Pfennig, 67, has pleaded not guilty to murdering the 10-year-old, who was taken from the front bedroom of her family's home in Hackham West on the night of January 4, 1983.
Petra Pfennig glanced at her father as she took to the witness stand in the South Australian Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Prosecutors focused on a canoeing and camping trip the Pfennig family and friends took along the Murray River over the New Year period of 1982, days before Louise disappeared.
Ms Pfennig, 42, recalled conversations she had with her dad about his return from the expedition.
"Dad's answers never made sense to me," she said.
"He said he came home with us and I said `that's not right, you came home with Reg (a friend)'."
She said these conversations took place while Pfennig was in custody.
Pfennig was arrested in 1989 and subsequently jailed for the abduction and murder of 10-year-old Murray Bridge boy Michael Black.
Following Pfennig's arrest in the Black case police began digging up the Pfennig house and asking Ms Pfennig questions about Louise, the court heard.
"I was trying to get answers from dad," she said.
"I thought police had the wrong man because dad was innocent.
"At the time I just couldn't believe he would have had anything to do with that."
But she said her father had a "habit of changing the subject".
Ms Pfennig went to primary school with Louise and was in the same year.
She said when they were kids it was likely Louise stayed over at the Pfennig home for a birthday party.
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