MURDER-accused Natasha Beth Darcy told detectives she "carried a lot of guilt", in a police interview recorded the day after Walcha grazier Mathew Dunbar was found dead in his bedroom.
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"Mathew suffers from depression, he tried to kill himself a number of weeks ago - the police took his guns off him," Darcy told Tamworth detectives in an interview recorded on August 2, 2017.
The interview was played at her trial in the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon. She has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Dunbar at his property Pandora in Walcha by sedating and gassing him.
A bout of tonsillitis that spread to Mr Dunbar's leg had left him with a limp and a poor prognosis which had driven his depression, Darcy told detectives.
"I was up for a number of hours talking to him, I told him it's not that bad we can sell the farm," she said.
"Matt's a very private person. He won't he'll go into his shell. Last night he asked to be alone."
In her recount to police, Darcy told Oxley Detective Senior Constable Graham Goodwin that Mr Dunbar had asked to sleep alone because of pain in his leg.
She said Mr Dunbar had gone to bed about 11pm and she stayed up to watch a movie while "he was probably in there dying".
In the early hours of the morning Darcy said she awoke to find the chimney flue blocked and black smoke had set off the fire alarm.
When she went in to tell Mr Dunbar about it, she said she shook him before she turned the bedside light on.
"He had the bag over his head and something was holding it, I don't know what, and a tube going to a gas bottle," she said.
"I pulled the bag off his head and started CPR and dialed 000.
"At some stage I turned the gas bottle off after I started CPR thinking, 'That's not supposed to be on'."
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Darcy told police she was upset that a distant family member of Mr Dunbar's had been "ringing everybody" telling them she had given him an overdose.
A jury heard the couple had been together for three years and that Darcy "knew" Mr Dunbar was gay.
"Matt's a really generous person. I know an old boyfriend of his, Mathew's gay. I know an old boyfriend of his took him for a lot of money a few years back," she told Tamworth detectives.
- Lifeline 13 11 14
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Madeline Link
Madeline Link is a journalist at the Newcastle Herald, with a focus on Lake Macquarie City Council. To keep up with my stories, follow my Twitter @madeline_link, for tips email madeline.link@newcastleherald.com.au.
Madeline Link is a journalist at the Newcastle Herald, with a focus on Lake Macquarie City Council. To keep up with my stories, follow my Twitter @madeline_link, for tips email madeline.link@newcastleherald.com.au.
