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Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
National
Sam Rigney

Jury sees final days of murdered mother Danielle Easey

Danielle Easey was killed and her body dumped in Cockle Creek in 2019. Justin Dilosa has pleaded not guilty to her murder and is on trial in NSW Supreme Court.

THE mother of murdered woman Danielle Easey was given false hope that her daughter was still alive and not the body found dumped in Cockle Creek because of messages sent from the 29-year-old's phone after her death, a jury has heard.

Justin Kent Dilosa, now 37, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Easey and is facing a lengthy trial in NSW Supreme Court.

He denies being involved in Ms Easey's killing, but admits to participating in the cover-up and dumping of Ms Easey's body and has pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact.

It is the prosecution case that Mr Dilosa and his ex-girlfriend Carol McHenry were with Ms Easey when she was stabbed in the back and struck in the head with a blunt object, similar to a hammer, in a home in Reeves Street at Narara on the night of August 17, 2019.

Her body was later found wrapped in plastic and duct tape and dumped in Cockle Creek at Killingworth on August 31.

But between her grisly death and the discovery of Ms Easey's body two weeks later, her phone continued to send messages to her mother and one of her friends.

Crown prosecutor John Stanhope has told the jury there is no dispute those messages were sent by Ms McHenry with the purpose of trying to convince Ms Easey's mother and her friend that Ms Easey was still alive.

In one exchange, on August 28 - some 11 days after her death - Ms Easey's friend asks where she is and her phone replies: "In Sydney".

"I'm on the run," Ms McHenry replied, purporting to be Ms Easey. "Fraud team from Sydney hit Central Coast."

The phone also contacted Ms Easey's mother, Jennifer Collier, in the days after Ms Easey was murdered so when police came to break the news that they had found her daughter's body, Ms Collier did not initially believe them.

Using CCTV, phone calls and text messages, the jury was on Friday taken through the final days of Ms Easey as she spent time with Mr Dilosa and Ms McHenry and the group travelled between Newcastle, the Central Coast and South Coast.

They were allegedly together on the afternoon of August 17, 2019, when Ms Easey was killed in the home at Narara and at 11pm that night CCTV footage captured Mr Dilosa walking into a service station on the Central Coast.

The CCTV video shows a barefoot Mr Dilosa taking his time to select a drink from the fridge before having a casual conversation with an attendant.

During his opening address on Thursday, Mr Stanhope told the jury there would be no dispute that Mr Dilosa's ex-partner, Carol McHenry, "had a part to play in the killing of Danielle Easey".

But he said the prosecution case is that both Ms McHenry and Mr Dilosa were "directly involved" in Ms Easey's death and Mr Dilosa stabbed Ms Easey in the home at Narara on August 17, 2019.

The trial will focus on the evidence of several former associates of Ms McHenry and Mr Dilosa, who Mr Stanhope said were involved in using methamphetamine, and who say the pair made a number of admissions about murdering Ms Easey.

The trial, before Justice Deborah Sweeney, will continue on Monday.

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