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Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
National

Details of 'beloved' knife hazy, jury in Easey murder trial told

Justin Kent Dilosa and Carol Marie McHenry are arrested in 2019 for their alleged roles in the murder of Danielle Easey, whose body was found in Cockle Creek. The pair are facing a murder trial in the NSW Supreme Court.

Jeremy Princehorn was trying to have a romantic evening around a campfire with his new girlfriend when his friends came over and threw a knife in the flames, a murder trial has been told.

Justin Dilosa and Carol McHenry are on trial for the murder of Danielle Easey, whose body was found in a creek wrapped in a protective suit, doona, plastic and a layer of duct tape on the Central Coast in August 2019.

McHenry and Dilosa point the finger at each other, claiming the other attacked and fatally wounded the 29-year-old in McHenry's home.

Friend of the couple, Mr Princehorn, testified in the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday that he was "just doing his own thing" with his date on an evening in August 2019 when Dilosa and McHenry "unexpectedly rocked up".

Once they arrived, Dilosa said something that led Princehorn to believe something "bad had happened".

"When Dilosa said, 'I don't know what she's done, she asked me to get rid of these things, she kept telling me she'll never see the kids again,' that's when you knew something bad had happened?" Dilosa's lawyer asked in cross-examination.

"Possibly, yes," Princehorn said.

Danielle Easey

While he testified on Thursday that he couldn't remember seeing the knife being tossed into the fire by Dilosa, he told police in 2019 otherwise.

"I was just standing in front of the fire and he just chucked it in, I thought 'what'd you do that for' because he loved that knife," Princehorn said at the time.

On Wednesday he told the judge he walked into McHenry's bedroom the following night to find Dilosa touching a dead body in the bed.

He said the woman was face-down, clothed and she appeared dead. There was no blood on the body, he said.

"He pulled the doona back and lifted her arm and it was stiff," Mr Princehorn said.

"And that's when I got out of there."

He returned to the living room and asked McHenry what had happened, to which she responded "I stabbed her".

When Mr Princehorn asked Dilosa days later what had happened, Dilosa said he had stabbed the dead woman.

The alcohol and ice addict said his memory of the incident was hazy as he'd been drinking extensively all weekend.

"I'd been off my face for days, I drank four or five bottles of piss that weekend but I knew she told me she stabbed her," he said.

Dilosa then allegedly said "something about her being tied up", according to Mr Princehorn who also said he saw cable ties in the kitchen.

Mr Princehorn, who was sentenced for being an accessory after the fact to Ms Easey's murder, will continue to be cross examined on Thursday.

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