Man 'sent weird texts' the night he vanished

Colleagues received "weird" texts from a man who was later found dead after vanishing from his workplace in the middle of the night, a jury heard.

Craig Hurcombe, 39, from Rowde in Wiltshire, was last seen alive on 1 January after being captured on CCTV arriving at the TJ Blanchard Limited site in Gurney Slade, Somerset.

Michael Bretton, 41, from Dorset, is accused of his murder and one count of stalking involving fear of violence against a woman. He denies all charges.

At Bristol Crown Court earlier, Hurcombe's boss said he also left the workshop lights and generator on, which was "highly unusual" for such a "reliable" employee.

The trial previously heard that Bretton had been engaged in a casual relationship with Kate Saunders, which he wanted to formalise into boyfriend and girlfriend status.

However, Saunders declined these advances and severed contact, instead rekindling an old relationship with Hurcombe.

It is alleged Bretton then began stalking Saunders and Hurcombe out of jealousy, fitting trackers to their cars and loitering outside her flat whilst they were together.

The prosecution claims Hurcombe was killed in a "pre-meditated and cold-blooded execution" using a samurai sword on New Year's Day.

His remains were discovered two weeks later in a shallow grave in nearby woodland.

On the evening of 1 January, Hurcombe, a lorry driver, arrived at Blanchard's yard to sleep over in his vehicle in preparation for an early start the following day.

His boss, Tom Blanchard, said this was something he did often to save the commute.

CCTV footage from the front gate showed him waving at a motion sensor camera at 18:26 GMT.

"This did not seem out of character for Craig, but I've never noticed him do it before," Blanchard said.

He added Hurcombe "strangely" opened both gates, despite only needing to open one to drive his car through.

He was also accompanied by an unknown, slimmer individual who was seen "struggling" to close the gates - suggesting they were unfamiliar with the locks.

At 01:04 GMT on 2 January, Blanchard checked his CCTV and noticed the yard was "unusually lit up" and the generator had been left running.

He texted the work WhatsApp group to ask if anyone was still awake to switch them off. Twelve minutes later, Hurcombe seemingly replied.

The message read: "That's my fault. I had an argument with the ex and forgot to turn them off. I'm not there now."

Fellow lorry driver Mark Curtis said this reply was "very weird and very unlike Craig".

"He wouldn't leave the lights and the generator on. Knowing Craig, he would have driven back to sort it out, it wouldn't matter if he was at home," he said.

Curtis explained the message also contained swear words, which seemed strange as Hurcombe "was usually very polite".

When colleagues began arriving for their shifts later that morning, they discovered the front gates wide open and Hurcombe's lorry was still parked in its usual spot.

The court heard he failed to show up for the job he had scheduled later that day.

Text messages sent from his phone blamed his absence on a desire to "clear [his] head" following the alleged argument.

Pathologist Dr Amanda Jeffery, who carried out a post-mortem examination on Hurcombe's body, previously told the court that he had died from a single lengthy stab injury which penetrated through his torso.

The trial continues.

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