They were soul mates, in love and appeared to be happily married.
This is how the family of Steven Fesus described the relationship between him and the teenage wife he is alleged to have killed.
Fesus cried in the dock on Tuesday as statements from his parents and brother were read to his Supreme Court trial.
Fesus has pleaded not guilty to murdering his then 18-year-old wife Jodie who he reported missing on August 12, 1997.
Just over a month later her body was discovered partially uncovered at camping ground at Seven Mile Beach near Wollongong.
The court heard Fesus's parents, Steve and Maria, had sought legal advice and would not be giving evidence at the proceedings.
Instead a series of statements given to police in the years after the alleged murder were read to the court.
In a 1997 statement, Mr Fesus said he had asked his son on two occasions if he had anything to do with his wife's disappearance or death.
"He said, `No, I loved her too much'."
Meanwhile, his brother David said in his statement that: "Steve loved Jodie and always thought of her as his soul mate."
The comments came after Fesus's then friend Glee Richardson described how she had called him in the days after Jodie went missing and Fesus had said: "Oh you haven't heard the news have you? ... She's gone. She left me."
Ms Richardson and her husband Aaron Richardson then went to Fesus's home to see him.
Inside, Mr Richardson said the usually messy home was immaculate, almost sterile.
They noticed that family portraits featuring Jodie had also been taken down.
"Steve said at the time she had been putting money away. He had no idea where the money was or how much it would have been," Mr Richardson recalled.
In the early stages of Fesus and Jodie's relationship they appeared to be good but as time progressed it became hostile, the Richardsons noted.
Mr Richardson said he witnessed one fight in which Jodie slapped Fesus "violently" in the chest and told him if he didn't want to move out west with her, she would take the car and create a new life without him.
After Jodie disappeared, her best friend Min Purtell told the court Fesus had told her the teenager had left all her jewellery behind.
"I said Jodie would never have left her jewellery behind. She would never have left her wedding ring," Ms Purtell added.
It is the crown's case that by 1997 the Fesus's relationship was fractured and his "frustration, discontent and resentment intensified".
On the night of August 11, 1997 they allege the pair fought and Fesus - believing Jodie was going to leave him - murdered her by choking or strangling her.
He then allegedly buried her body.
The trial continues.
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