The murder trial of a Victorian man accused of slaying his estranged wife, and then stringing her up in the garage so that her death would look like a suicide, has been told there was "no way" she would have killed herself.
WARNING: This story contains details that will be distressing to some readers.
The body of Samantha Fraser, 38, was discovered by police at her home at Cowes, on Phillip Island, after she failed to pick up her children after school on 23 July 2018, the day after her birthday.
Her husband, Adrian Basham, is currently on trial in the Supreme Court of Victoria where he is accused of murder.
The prosecution's case is that just minutes after Ms Fraser took her children to school on the day that she died, Mr Basham sneaked into the family home and lay in wait for more than an hour.
When Ms Fraser arrived home, prosecutors say that Mr Basham attacked his estranged wife, strangling her with a rope and then hanging her in the garage.
"The accused set about manipulating the crime scene to make it appear that she had committed suicide by hanging," the prosecutor, Nanette Rogers SC, previously told the court.
Defence lawyers for Mr Basham have told the Supreme Court that the case is a "whodunnit" and urged the jury to consider the possibility that Ms Fraser was alive when Mr Basham left the garage, and later killed herself.
But tearful friends and family have told the jury that the mother-of-three would not have taken her own life.
"There was absolutely no way that she would commit suicide," her father, Trevor Fraser, said on Friday.
Her friend, Nadine Leed, told the Supreme Court that Ms Fraser had never expressed thoughts about suicide or self-harm and that she was positive in the lead up to her death.
"She left me a voice message … her voice sounded so lively and happy and joyous," Ms Leed said.
"She was most definitely in a good place. She'd started a new relationship .. she just was laughing."
The jury was told that after Ms Fraser's death, Ms Leed was watching security footage released by police which showed a man in a two-toned blue jacket walking along the street where the mother-of-three lived.
The court heard that Ms Leed believed Mr Basham was wearing a similar jacket on a snow trip that he attended with her family a few years earlier, sparking her to send photos of the holiday to police.
The trial continues.
