Death threats before Marnielee Cave was found dead
DAYS before she was found dead Marnielee Cave was crying and scared after getting death threats. Then the 26-year-old’s body was found under a bridge.
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DAYS before she was found dead under a bridge Marnielee Cave had been crying and scared
The popular 26-year-old from Bega, in southern NSW, had received a death threat from two people from her past.
She told her good friend Patrick Aberdeen and his partner about the threat against her life last week.
“About a week ago and a half ago she came over and told us she received a death threat,” Mr Aberdeen revealed to news.com.au
“She came over ... She was crying and said ‘this is what’s happened.”
It wasn’t the first time she’d had trouble with the two individuals, he said.
Despite the shock of the threat she didn’t let it get the better of her, spending the rest of that visit playing Cluedo with Mr Aberdeen, his partner and their children.
Her body was found in the Bega River under Mogareeka Bridge in Tathra, on the NSW south coast, last week.
It’s understood police believe she wasn’t killed where her body was found.
She was left wearing a butterfly pendant necklace which eventually helped police to identify her.
Her handbag and phone are still missing.
It’s believed her body showed signs of a violent death, possibly involving a rope, and police were treating the death as murder.
Mr Aberdeen said Ms Cave didn’t have a car so someone must have taken her to Tathra from Bega.
“She liked going there, to the beach to collect shells and to get away from everything.”
But to get anywhere close to there “someone must have picked her up or physically grabbed her and put her in the car”.
He worried that it was someone she knew.
“There are stories flying around — we all have our suspicions of a couple of people, but that’s up to the police.”
Ms Cave moved to Bega from Canberra in 2011 but had recently moved in with her mother after breaking up with a boyfriend.
Friends had commented on how happy she looked in pictures she posted on her Facebook page.
In a later post, Ms Cave left a cryptic message which said “I wasn’t born a B****, Man have made me this way! XX” before telling a friend she would stay strong.
Mr Aberdeen said she had been “like my lil’ sis” and became an aunty figure to his children. She was studying childcare at TAFE and looked after several local children.
“We saw her three or four times a week. It was always ‘love” this or ‘darl’ that. She always had her arms out ready for a hug.”
The last contact he had with her was on Sunday when they discussed his recent camping trip. “She was the same old Marnie.”
The last confirmed sighting of Ms Cave was last Tuesday when she was seen walking in Bega about lunchtime. Her body was found the following morning.
He appealed to anyone who knew anything or saw her to get in touch with police, no matter how small they felt their information was.
“The police might get 101 stories but they have to work through everything, it doesn’t matter how minor it seems to be.”
+ Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
andrew.koubaridis@news.com.au
Originally published as Death threats before Marnielee Cave was found dead
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