The mother of Tracy Kearns, alleged to have been murdered by her partner after he found out that she was having an affair, told the jury at Mold Crown Court she could not understand why her daughter had not been in touch.

It was Eileen Jones from Llandudno who reported her daughter missing.

In a statement read by prosecuting barrister Ian Unsworth at Mold Crown Court, she said that on Friday May 7 Tracy Kearns had gone to Blackpool with Andrew Jones and she was looking after the children.

On the Saturday Tracy’s partner Anthony Bird arrived at her home having made up a story that he was on the way to Bangor, but then admitted that he was checking up on Tracy. He did not rant and was calm.

The following morning she saw Tracy return home and realised that Bird had been waiting for her outside.

He left with the children and when she asked Tracy what she was going to do, she said that there was nothing she could do. “He knows now. He has caught me,” she said.

She was subdued when she left and went to work at the Sandy Cove bar that night.

Mrs Jones spoke to her on the phone that evening and that was the last time she spoke to him.

Mrs Jones said that she had no contact from her daughter again and had no contact from the defendant until he rang on the Tuesday morning to ask about the girls’ swimming lessons.

He said Tracy was not there and she thought nothing of it, and thought she was working or something.

That evening she went with him and the girls to the Nova Centre and he said that she had gone.

He said Tracy had been away for he weekend and he was fed up of people telling lies all the time.

She could not understand why her daughter had not telephoned her. “She would definitely not go this long without speaking to me and the girls,” she said.

Mrs Jones said that she reported her daughter missing to the police and when she told the defendant he appeared calm and cool.

The prosecution say that Bird murdered his partner by strangling her and then wrapped her naked body in plastic – leaving it covered in debris in a trailer.

The murder trial jury also heard a good friend of the victim say Bird was planning to propose to Tracy Kearns on the Eiffel Tower.

Diane Powell said that they had been very good friends for 15 years and that the two families had been planning a holiday to Paris in May, shortly after she disappeared.

She said that Bird told her that he could not go to Paris with “Tracy out there with somebody”.

He had said that he had been planning to propose to her up the Eiffel Tower.

Bird had told her that she had left him in the early hours of the Monday morning.

Bird complained that Tracy had been telling him lies and was leaving him.

“I just didn’t think that she would leave her children like that,” said Mrs Powell.

“She would not leave the girls. I rang Eileen (Tracy’s mother) back and asked her to contact the police,” she said.

Mrs Powell said that Andrew Jones, who she had been having an affair with, had told her that Tracy was not with him and that he had not seen her since the Sunday night.

She went to Bird’s home on the Wednesday and found that he was getting a quote to re-decorate the lounge which she did not think was appropriate.

Mrs Powell took the girls to her home and he later phoned her to say goodnight to them.

Mrs Powell said that the  last contact she had with Tracy was on Sunday, May 7, when she sent her a Slimming World associated picture.

On Monday May 8 she sent a message asking about going out for tea and while it got through to her phone she had not read it and she received no reply. She sent further messages on May 10, but they were not shown as received.

They would normally meet up on Wednesday morning to go to Slimming World in Abergele but on Wednesday May 10 she did not turn up. 

“I sent a message to her mother Eileen , she rang me back, she told me that Tracy had been having an affair and Ant had found out,” said Mrs Powell.

“She also told me that Tracy had not been in touch with her since the Sunday.

“I thought that was strange.

“I asked if Eileen had contacted the police. She said that she had not. She seemed a little distressed.

“I told her I would go to the house and get back to her.”

She spoke to the defendant at The Sandy Cove.

He said he had found out about the affair on the Sunday morning and that they had rowed.

“Tracy never told me about the affair and I told him I did not know about it,” explained Mrs Powell.

“He told me about what he had discovered and he appeared calm, not tearful in any way.”

Bird showed her text messages between him and Tracy – the last one was a message to say that he had fixed her tyre.

He told her that he had met the other man – and he said that Andrew Jones had no intention of leaving his wife .

Bird said that he was glad “that it was this man, that he knew he was an alright man.”

Tracy, he said, had found a house to live in.

He said that she returned home on the Sunday night – that she “just sat there looking down at the floor for a long time.”

Bird said that he asked her if they could stay living in the same house. Tracy had said that she was moving out.

Mrs Powell added: “He went on to tell me about her leaving at about 2.20. He said she had a puncture and that she would come back for the kinds. He was in bed, and heard the front door slam.”

Defendant Anthony James Bird, 48, denies the murder of Tracy Kearns, 43, at the home they shared in Cader Avenue in Kinmel Bay, between May 7 and May 11 but accepts that he was responsible for her death.

Proceeding.