Alleged killer Wendie-Sue Dent told neighbours ‘I know what the smell of death is like’, trial hears
Neighbours have told a court this alleged poisoner said “I know what the smell of death is like” after her partner died – but that she cried only “crocodile tears” when speaking about him.
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A woman who allegedly poisoned her lover to claim his $300,000 estate did not seem sad after his death and was only emotional when crying “crocodile tears”, a court has heard.
A jury has heard Wendie-Sue Dent told her neighbours that David Lawrence had died of an aneurysm, insisting “I worked in a morgue, I know what the smell of death is like”.
Harley Geissler, who lived next door to the couple, said Dent had claimed Mr Lawrence was “bedridden” in the days leading up to his death, unable to even mow their lawn.
“The last time I saw him was a week before his death … he was outside, digging 15cm down into the dirt for a concrete patio and fencing,” he said.
“He was using a shovel and a pick and, for a 60-year-old man, that’s a very good job.”
Dent, 61, of Dapto in NSW, has pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court to murdering Mr Lawrence in his Morphett Vale home on or about December 2, 2015.
Prosecutors allege she poisoned him with medication – including 20, 100mg tablets of morphine – and falsified documents to make herself his sole beneficiary.
Previously, the trial has heard Dent produced a handwritten will after Mr Lawrence’s death, which she claimed left everything to her.
Members of his family have alleged their names are misspelled in the document.
Giving evidence, Mr Geissler’s partner, Brittney Bates, said the couple had spoken with Dent on the evening after his body had been discovered.
“She told us she had woken because she smelled a really awful smell (and) just happened to shine a light over David’s face,” she said.
“She said she saw David had died from an aneurysm and bled out … she told me ‘I’ve worked in a morgue before, I know what the smell of death is like, I can just tell’.”
Ms Bates said Dent had “seemed a bit off” while speaking.
“It didn’t seem like genuine emotion, she did not seem sad … it just seemed like a cover – it just seemed, to me, like crocodile tears,” she said.
Mr Geissler said he and Mr Lawrence had been extremely close and, two weeks prior to his death, the older man had spoken of leaving him a car in his will.
“Wendie came with him … he asked for my information, my personal information, and that was the only conversation we ever had about being in his will,” he said.
“He took my name, address and birth date … I wrote them down on a piece of paper.”
Prosecutor Emily Telfer SC showed Mr Geissler the handwritten will, which bequeaths the car to a person named “Griesler”.
“No, that’s not right … my name has never been spelled that way,” he said.
The trial, before Justice Tim Stanley, continues.