Testimony that will live on

By Nick Assinder
BBC News Online political correspondent at the Hutton inquiry

In the precise, formulaic words of police constable Andrew Franklin, Dr David Kelly's life was pronounced extinct at 1007 on the morning of 18 July.

It was one of those moments where only the necessarily detached, technical language of the police seemed to fit the occasion.

Until yesterday, the Hutton inquiry had been dominated by high politics, low motives and sensational insights into the intimate workings of Downing Street, the Ministry of Defence and the security services.

Mrs Kelly giving evidence

Not now. Here was the account of the search for a man pronounced by the police a high risk missing person - "misper" in the jargon - after they were briefed on the background to his disappearance.

After Monday's devastating testimony from Dr Kelly's widow and family, Tuesday was a day to concentrate on the tragic, but often routine events in the hours surrounding his apparent suicide.

It was the day for the story of the brief meeting between Dr Kelly and villager Ruth Absalom as she walked her dog Buster and he set out on one of his afternoon strolls on that summer's afternoon in the tranquil English village.

Trouser suit

They chatted for a few minutes only. He appeared his normal self and his last words as he continued on his walk were 'Cheerio, I'll see you then Ruth.' And that was it, we parted."

He was never seen alive again. Asked if there was anything else she could say about their meeting she could only add: "I am sorry. I wish I could, but that is all I can tell you."

He has found something, but something is not quite the same as a normal search Louise Holmes Discovered Dr Kelly's body

Her meeting was in contrast to the evidence from Louise Holmes, a hearing dog trainer and volunteer search and rescue team member.

She sat nervously, uncomfortably, in a white trouser suit as she told how she and her dog Brock had found the body of the man they had been tasked to search for.

Brock's skill is to pick up a human scent, find the source and take his handler to it.

They were searching the woods near Dr Kelly's home when Brock clearly detected something.

"He is trained to come back and bark at me. I will say 'show me' and he will turn around and go back." Not this time.

"He just laid down and looked at me. I thought 'he has found something, but something is not quite the same as a normal search'."

'Will live on'

He had found the body of the man they had been searching for, slumped against a tree, clearly dead.

Tuesday was also the day the police gave their account of their search for a missing person - routine and exceptional in equal measure.

Aerial view of Dr Kelly's home village

In their particular, detached and impersonal manner they set out just how they organised the search, treated the body, informed the family and searched for evidence.

As ever, it was the details that shocked - the curved knife which was identical to a pruning knife, the part-drunk bottle of Evian water propped up alongside the body and the watch carefully removed from the left wrist and laid alongside the knife.

And the description of how his jeans had ridden up, exposing the lower part of his leg as he has slid down the base of the tree in his last moments.

This inquiry will have consequences that are still impossible to judge.

But it will be the past two day's testimony that will live in the memory far longer than any of that.