Lily Lin was beaten so badly her face was unrecognisable and NSW police initially assumed she was a man who had been executed with a shotgun.
The two police officers who first arrived at the North Epping home where five members of the Lin family were allegedly beaten to death gave disturbing evidence at the trial of Lian Bin "Robert" Xie on Thursday.
Xie is accused of entering the house of brother-in-law Min Lin in July 2009 and using a hammer-like-weapon to kill the 45-year-old, his wife Lily, 44, her sister Irene, 39, and the Lins' two sons Henry, 12, and Terry, nine.
Xie has pleaded not guilty.
Senior Constable Robert Levins and Sargent Lachlan Kirby found Lily's sister Kathy in a "highly distressed state" when they arrived at the Lin family home.
She had twice called police, saying she feared her brother was dead inside, the NSW Supreme Court heard.
The officers drew their guns and went inside and upstairs to "clear" the bedrooms.
When Levins nudged open the door to the master bedroom with his foot he saw Lily's body sitting on the bed, with her shoulders and back resting against the blood-covered wall.
"We've a dead one in there," he called to his partner.
"Same here," Kirby replied, having found a similarly gruesome scene in Irene's room.
Kirby then went to inspect his colleague's discovery.
He told the court about a body "slumped against the wall," the face covered with long black hair masking all but the obvious signs of "extreme trauma".
He thought he had found the body of a man murdered by a close-range shotgun blast "due to the nature of the injuries".
"I couldn't see any facial features," he told the packed court.
The trial continues.
