A team of forensic experts examining her death believe police had “anchoring bias” when they arrived at Dr Karen Mahlo’s home.

No body core temperature was recorded at the scene; there was no death scene mapping provided; no fingernail scrapings for DNA analysis recorded, or testing for blood around the home.

No testing was conducted on the clothes, vehicle or home of her ex-partner who found her.

The knife found in Dr Mahlo’s chest was not examined for prints until five days after her body was found; no DNA was detected on the knife and there is no record of tape lifts for DNA being conducted on other items around the bed.

Items in the home such as bedspread, linen, computer and printer were not seized.

An inquest into the death of Dr Mahlo did not reference any CCTV being collected between 6.30pm on May 27 and 4.30am on May 28, to confirm witness accounts.

When asked by The Sunday Mail this week, police said they doorknocked the area.

Officers were told of Dr Mahlo’s depression and previous suicide attempts, with the scene also showing no obvious signs of a struggle.

Dr Mahlo, 52, was found dead in her bed of her Sunshine Coast home, with a chef’s knife protruding from her chest on May 28, 2008.

Her ex-partner John Hehir, who found her about 5am, told police about her self-harm attempts, when he gave police a statement that morning.

Officers found unsigned computer-typed notes to her children and ex partner, and no obvious signs of struggle within her house.

By 7.15am, Mr Hehir had formally identified Dr Mahlo, according to the police file, and by 8.30am her body was moved to Nambour Hospital - where she was once the executive director of medical services.

In April 2007 Dr Mahlo had attempted cutting an artery in her leg, which he and police deemed a suicide attempt, although no stitching was required and she did not go to a hospital.

On a second reported suicide attempt, in August 2007, she attempted cutting her wrist, but again did not go to hospital, with no stitching required.

On the day she was found police paperwork filed had effectively established her death was a suicide, before a pathologist had conducted an autopsy and before the knife was forensically examined.

A police report written from a conversation with her psychiatrist Dr Clive Fraser said she had cut her wrists and nearly bled to death and that she had sliced a large artery in her ankle However, giving evidence at the inquest into her death in 2014, Dr Fraser said both times there were only superficial wounds.

What investigators did not know at the time was that a USB was plugged into the computer at 2.45am on the morning she was found, with the two suicide notes written minutes later.

The USB was never found, but in 2011, when police were conducting investigations on behalf of the coroner, they confirmed the same USB was plugged into Mr Hehir’s computer months after Dr Mahlo’s death.

The coroner in 2014 ultimately ruled her death as being between 3.06am-5am, despite evidence her computer was used at 3.29am, where control panel settings were changed.

At the inquest, detective Senior Constable Jodie Allan said there were three detectives working when they were called to attend Dr Mahlo’s home.

They arrived about 5.30am with scenes of crime officers.

“We did an initial examination of the scene, I then returned the … spoken to the deceased’s daughter, returned with John Hehir, and then, from there, the whole investigation was handed back over to uniform as we deemed it a suicide,” she told the inquest.

Sen Const Allan told the inquest she believed Mr Hehir’s behaviour was “distinctly strange”, that he was a “blubbering mess” at the scene after Dr Mahlo was found.

Sen Const Allan confirmed she later filed a series of supplementary reports to the coroner in 2010 and throughout 2011 before the inquest was held in 2014.

Examining aspects of her death, forensic psychiatrist Dr Russ Scott and forensic pathologist

Dr Allan Cala have argued familiar features of suicide were identified by investigators early, which included no signs of a forced entry and the discovery of suicide notes.

They have argued the evidence collected, including autopsy results, does not support a finding of suicide.