More witnesses took the stand in Moncton provincial court today to testify in the Fred Prosser murder trial.

Co-workers of the accused killer told the court he was visibly distressed the day after 25-year-old Sabrina Patterson was last seen alive.

Employees of the building supply store testified Prosser was so distraught he had tears in his eyes and had to be sent home.

“To me, the only new things brought forward are extra people that are corroborating the story, really,” says the victim’s sister, Denise Murphy.

Prosser is charged with first-degree murder in Patterson’s death and also faces three sex-related charges and two breaches of an undertaking in connection with the case.

Prosser has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Patterson was reported missing on Oct. 31, 2010.

The court heard police visited Prosser’s home in Shenstone, looking for information about where she may have been, but Prosser told investigators his last contact with Patterson was a text message.

He also told them they were supposed to meet on Oct. 29 but that Patterson, his on-again, off-again girlfriend and mother of his two children, failed to show.

Prosser was also reported missing shortly after Patterson disappeared.

The court heard two officers visited his home, thinking he was still a missing person, on Nov. 4, 2010.

However, when they sat at a table with Prosser’s parents, police say his father appeared nervous and eventually admitted his son was in the home.

Police then arrested Prosser, but did not handcuff him, at his father’s request.

“In my opinion, I don’t understand why he wasn’t brought out in handcuffs like any other person would have been at that point,” says Murphy. “But that’s my opinion.”

On their way to the police station, the court heard Prosser led officers to his truck, which had been abandoned in a field near the family home.

“He was co-operative I guess. He knows what he was facing,” says the victim’s brother, Dale Patterson.

At the end of Thursday’s testimony, the Crown put an RCMP forensic investigator on the stand, who testified to removing Patterson’s body and being present at the autopsy in Saint John.

He told the court he observed a cut above her left eye and bruising around her throat.

The victim’s family also heard, to their surprise, that Prosser was charged with murder two days before Patterson’s body was found.

A total of 40 witnesses are expected to testify by the end of the trial. Testimony continues Friday.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Jonathan MacInnis