The last time Hannah McGuire's friends saw the 23-year-old, she was happy, bouncing with energy and optimistic.
She was back playing netball, a sport she'd always loved, and making it known that she was ready to put her ugly break-up with Lachlan Young firmly behind her.
But instead of seizing the chance to live out the bright future she'd planned, Hannah was dead within hours of leaving training.
Despite her resolve, she and Young met up again and argued at the home they still owned together in Sebastopol, 120km northeast of Melbourne.
During the confrontation, he pushed her to the bathroom floor and throttled her until she stopped breathing.
He then shoved her body into the footwell of her Mitsubishi Triton, drove to a remote bushland spot and set the car alight.
Young spent 18 months denying the murder and even argued his case at trial in the Victorian Supreme Court.
But after eight days of evidence, he this week pleaded guilty after disclosing behind closed doors how he committed the murder.
During his plea hearing in Ballarat, crown prosecutor Kristie Churchill said Young had been motivated by male entitlement, jealousy and rage.
She outlined how he was controlling and abusive towards Hannah throughout their entire two-and-a-half-year relationship and that she had first reported him to police in February 2023 for damaging her vehicle because she told him she didn't want to buy the Sebastopol property.
He also chased her down in his own car as she left work, leaving her terrified that he intended running her off the road.
An initial intervention order was made on February 28, 2023, allowing conditional contact.
The couple got back together, Hannah agreed to the Sebastopol purchase on March 16 and the abuse subsided.
Then, in February 2024, Young found out she had her own personal savings account.
In the weeks that followed, he sent her abusive messages before punching and kicking her during an argument.
Hannah formulated a plan to leave him, took her money from their joint account, paid her bills and met with a solicitor.
She also obtained a second intervention order on March 21, once again prohibiting family violence.
But the following week, Young slammed his fist into her car door, threw cans at the vehicle and called her a "f****** dog" as she tried to collect her belongings.
On April 2, he met with workmate Benjamin O'Keefe and disclosed a plan to 'roofie' his now estranged partner (a reference to drugging her with Rohypnol) and crash her in a car to scare her out of taking the house.
Young asked Mr O'Keefe to help him and he ultimately agreed.
Two days later, Hannah went to netball training after work and had dinner with her teammates at her parents' pub.
The women discussed their highs and lows of the week and she confided that she was excited about her return to the netball court and separation from Young.
Still, she agreed to meet him at Sebastopol later that night, arriving shortly before 10pm and without telling any of her family or friends.
By 2.30am, Young had strangled her. He called Mr O'Keefe shortly after and they drove in convoy to Scarsdale, with Hannah's body shoved in the footwell of her ute.
Young drove the vehicle into some tree stumps, instructed Mr O'Keefe to turn his car around and then set fire to the ute with a blowtorch.
As Mr O'Keefe drove them away, Young used Hannah's phone to text a suicide note to her mother.
Debbie McGuire sent multiple panicked responses, urging her not to do anything silly and to remember why she left Young in the first place.
Young also used the mobile to transfer $2000 from her bank account to her mother and $5000 to himself.
When Mrs McGuire arrived at his house in a panic about 5am, he feigned surprise and claimed he didn't know where Hannah was.
Young called her friends and accused them of keeping her from him, all the while perpetuating the lie.
A local resident located the burnt-out ute later that day and firefighters made the grim discovery of her remains.
Young continued his charade, holding a wake at his parents' house and telling detectives he would "never f****** harm that girl" but they saw through the act, charging him with murder two days later.
Young, dressed in black and flanked by two guards, kept his head down in the Ballarat courtroom this week while finally admitting his guilt.
Dozens of Hannah's supporters and loved ones packed the hearing, pouring out their grief in victim impact statements.
They described her as a ray of sunshine, strong, vibrant, determined and kind.
They also despaired at how she would never become a teacher or mother, or walk before them down the aisle on her wedding day.
Debbie McGuire looked directly at her daughter's killer and told him she would never forget or forgive him.
She hugged her husband Glenn as he wiped away tears during a minute's silence for their daughter, led by Justice James Elliott mid-way through the plea hearing.
Young looked down during the moment of reflection as silence weighed heavy in the packed room.
Ms Churchill then rose to her feet to call for a lengthy prison term for Young, who she described as a cold, calculated and remorseless killer.
She said he was fuelled by male entitlement and rage, and that Hannah should have had a right to navigate their relationship in a way she saw fit without being killed.
Young's barrister Glenn Casement claimed his client was an immature man, confused and frustrated by the on-and-off again nature of their time together.
He argued that it was this confusion that led him to further abuse alcohol and the inability to control his anger during the fatal argument.
However Ms Churchill dismissed momentary loss of self-control as an explanation and stressed that Hannah's final minutes must have been filled with terror.
With Justice Elliott electing to consider submissions before handing down his sentence, Young was led away knowing he will have to wait before learning of his fate.
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