Danielle's friend found guilty of her murder, jury still deliberating on co-accused

Danielle Easey.

THEY were once close friends; using drugs, visiting associates in jail and navigating the Newcastle criminal underworld together.

But during August, 2019, while they were hanging out and using ice at her house at Narara on the Central Coast, Carol Marie McHenry bashed and stabbed her friend, Danielle Easey, to death.

McHenry, who had pointed the finger at Justin Kent Dilosa, her ex-partner and co-accused, during a lengthy trial in NSW Supreme Court was on Monday found guilty of murder, a jury left with no doubt that she had killed her friend in the bedroom of a home in Reeves Street on August 19, 2019, before her body was dumped in Cockle Creek.

However, the jury, as of Monday afternoon, were still deliberating and had not reached a verdict in relation to Mr Dilosa.

After she was stabbed and struck with a hammer, Ms Easey, a 29-year-old mother, was left in the bedroom overnight before her body was wrapped in plastic and a doona and put inside an empty cupboard.

The cupboard, with Ms Easey's body inside, was then driven around in a van before it was dumped in Cockle Creek at Killingworth where it was found, partially submerged, on August 31, 2019.

Meanwhile, in the days before the body was discovered, McHenry had began using Ms Easey's phone and her Facebook account in a bid to make it appear she was still alive and defraud Ms Easey's mother of $50.

The prosecution case against McHenry was based on a number of admissions she made to associates about the death of Ms Easey, including telling one man "we f---ed up and killed this bitch".

Justin Kent Dilosa and Carol Marie McHenry have been on trial in NSW Supreme Court accused of murdering Danielle Easey at a house at Narara in 2019. Ms Easey's body was later found dumped in Cockle Creek.

McHenry gave a number of police interviews, where she claimed she had woken to Mr Dilosa attacking Ms Easey and was under duress and his direction when she contacted Ms Easey's mother.

But Mr Dilosa gave evidence that he had fallen asleep in his van on the night Ms Easey was murdered at the house at Narara and claimed McHenry had later confessed, telling him: "I don't know what I've done. She had to go."

McHenry will be sentenced in April next year.

Dilosa remains on trial until the jury reaches a verdict.

The house at Narara where Danielle Easey was allegedly murdered in 2019. Her body was later dumped in Cockle Creek.