UPDATE: Key witness refuses to appear at murder trial

Virginia McIntyre, the "other woman" who defense attorneys say killed Adam Kostewicz, says returning to Arizona and testifying is too stressful. She was scheduled to appear in court Thursday morning but was a no-show.

"Hopefully it's a misunderstanding," said Deputy County Attorney Cleve Lynch.

But after the lunch break Lynch told the judge an defense team that McIntyre had e-mailed saying "It's too much, call my doctor."

Judge Andrew Klein said he wanted her on the stand and that if she didn't appear he would issue a bench warrant for her arrest.

"In my experience, when a witness says 'call my doctor' it's because they simply don't want to testify," said Klein. "I want her here."

Attorneys for Grace Pianka, charged with the second-degree murder of her husband, Kostewicz, have told the jury that it wasn't their client who killed Kostewicz after finding out he was having an affair, but McIntyre who did it for financial gain.

Prosecutors have already told jurors that it was McIntyre who was having the affair. She is also the one who looked in a bedroom window April 15, 2006 and saw Kostrewicz lying in a puddle of blood.

Lynch has previously told court officials that McIntyre and her husband Robert moved out of state sometime this year and that he didn't know where she was and she refused to provide the Maricopa County Attorney's Office with contact information.

But Thursday afternoon he said McIntyre's doctor did say what state she was in and he would get investigators to look for her.

The trial continued Thursday with other witnesses and McIntyre is expected to testify Aug. 4.

More Pianka Trial coverage:

Local woman's murder trial underway (7/29)

Wife's murder trial to begin Tuesday (7/28)

Murder trial set to open Tuesday (7/25)

Foothills murder trial ready to begin (7/21)