A WOMAN approached the accused murderer of Bathurst man Andrew Russell after receiving a phone call from a friend alerting her to rumours linking her to his disappearance, a murder trial has heard.
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Lisa Smith was one of several witnesses to yesterday give evidence at the trial underway in the Supreme Court in Bathurst.
She said she received a call from a friend following Mr Russell’s disappearance telling her there was a rumour around town that Mr Russell’s body was in the boot of Ms Smith’s car.
The trial – which began in Sydney last week before moving to Bathurst, and is expected to run for six weeks – is investigating the alleged murder of 23-year-old Bathurst man Andrew Russell, who was last seen alive in 2009. Despite extensive searches by police, Mr Russell’s body has never been found.
Last week the court heard allegations that the murder accused – Tony Simmons, 27 – dumped Mr Russell’s body down a well.
Ms Smith said yesterday she was at a party in Seymour Street back in 2009 when she had a conversation with Simmons about Andrew Russell.
While she couldn’t recall the conversation verbatim, she said Simmons had said to her: “I didn’t kill him.” She said the conversation had come up because Simmons had told her “he’d had a fight with [Mr Russell]”.
About one week later, Ms Smith said she took a phone call from a friend who “joked to me I had Andrew Russell in my boot”.
Ms Smith said she laughed about it, but still called Simmons about the “rumour”.
She said she rang Simmons and he told her: “I didn’t do it. I don’t know what she [the friend who called] is on about. I didn’t do it.”
She said she also recalled Simmons saying: “I only bashed him, I didn’t kill him, it’s all bulls**t.”
Also giving evidence at the trial yesterday was Bathurst woman Louisa De Naro, who told how she visited Andrew Russell’s home in March 2009 where the accused, Simmons, and his girlfriend Jodi Biles had been living.
While she was there, she said Simmons had shown her injuries to his hands.
She also said another man, whose name she could not recall, showed her a photo of Mr Russell on his phone. The image depicted Mr Russell with two black eyes.
Ms De Naro said the man then took her to Mr Russell’s bedroom and showed her a stain on his bed, which was blood.
When asked if she said something to Simmons about this, she said she probably called him a “d**khead”.
When asked if she asked what had happened, Ms De Naro said she was told Mr Russell had tried to “crack on” to Simmons’ girlfriend.
The trial continues today.
