A stress leave application signed by Robin Bain was found by a former Taieri Beach School trustee in 2000, the Bain retrial jury heard today.
Although she could not remember the exact date Mr Bain wanted the leave, Jeannine Basquin said she knew it was ''within months'' of the Bain family shootings in June 1994.
''I keep thinking it was April,'' Mrs Basquin told Justice Graham Panckhurst in the High Court at Christchurch.
She did not know what had happened to the document but thought it had been put back in the filing cabinet.
Police first asked her about the letter in August 2007 and she could not at first recall anything about it but then remembered when the officer mentioned the name of the principal, Wayne Facer, who had decided to have a clear out of documents.
And a school teacher who had done relief teaching at Robin Bain's school several times between July 1991 and August 1993 said she was there for about a month in July and August 1993 because Robin Bain became ill.
She was aware he had an ear infection which was affecting his balance, Christine Rout told the court.
Mrs Rout said Mr Bain called her by Robin Bain on the Tuesday or Wednesday before the June 20 deaths asking if she could do two weeks at the school in the lead up to the mid-term break but she had commitments at another school.
Because of the number of times she had relieved at Taieri Beach, she saw nothing unusual in Mr Bain's request, Mrs Rout said.
