The remains of 32-year-old Samantha Collins (photo) were found in Bracebridge. Here mother Dorothy (R) and the victims sister, Nicole Fowlie pose with her photo. (QMI Agency/MARK O'NEILL)

BRACEBRIDGE, ONT. - A veteran police officer had difficulty holding back his emotions on the witness stand Tuesday as he recounted the horror of discovering the putrefied body parts of a missing woman.

Now on trial for first-degree murder and indignity to a body is Ian Borbely, 36, of Orillia, Ont. The body parts of his former partner, Samantha Collins, 29, were found hidden on a cottage property on July 5, 2010 — almost three years after she died.

On Tuesday, Bracebridge OPP Const. Pete Juneau told the jury he was called to the cottage, owned by a local doctor who had discovered a box with a terrible stench hidden under a crawl space beneath the deck of his cottage.