After hearing two gunshots during a gold-prospecting trip in the Queensland outback, Tremain Anderson went looking for blood.
He found nothing and fellow prospector Bruce Schuler was never seen again.
Palmerville Station owners, Stephen Struber and Dianne Wilson-Struber, are accused of murdering 48-year-old Schuler in July, 2012 and interfering with his corpse.
Mr Anderson told a Cairns Supreme Court on Monday he "legged it" when he heard a car coming up the remote track, southwest of Cooktown.
"I knew it could only be one vehicle," he said.
"I glanced over my shoulder and saw Stephen Struber and Dianne."
He used a gully as protection when he heard two shots being fired in the space of 15 minutes, he said.
He was found hiding in grass by another member of the prospecting group, Daniel Bidner, after the car drove away, the court heard.
Mr Bidner left the camp on a motorbike to pick up a car, while Mr Anderson spent hours searching for Mr Schuler and the final member of the group, Kevin Groth.
"I went back to where the gully was, where the shots were fired from, and I ran pretty much every gully," Mr Anderson told the court.
"I was looking for any signs of blood or anything."
Mr Groth showed up at the campsite shortly after Mr Anderson returned to camp, the court heard.
All three men left after writing a message to Mr Schuler asking him to ring them as soon as he could, Mr Anderson said.
Earlier in the day, Mr Bidner told the trial he was standing on top of a gully when he saw Ms Wilson-Struber take what he assumed was a gun from behind the seat and do something to it.
He said he heard a "clang", like two pieces of metal hitting each other, after the gunshots.
Ms Wilson-Struber's defence barrister, Joshua Trevino, questioned whether Mr Bidner could have seen into the ute or identified his client from where he stood, about 100 metres away on top of the gully.
Mr Bidner admitted he could not make out specific facial details of the person who got out of the car but he could tell their approximate age and gender.
He also said he'd previously had an argument with the station owners, during which he accused Mr Struber of having alerted police to 70 marijuana plants he was growing.
Mr Anderson denied his suspended sentence for having 276 marijuana plants had anything to do with Mr Bidner's crop.
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