Alleged Cranebrook murderer Ashley Gaddie’s Tinder match Karla Tauro speaks out

Karla Tauro and alleged killer Ashley Gaddie had a whirlwind three-week relationship and break-up, but the young woman never expected a homicide detective to come knocking at her door. Read their final texts to each other (warning: graphic language).

A Sydney tradie and serial domestic violence offender allegedly murdered a schoolteacher he met through a dating app, escaped out a bedroom window and fled to the Blue Mountains, where police cornered him on a cliff’s edge.

Ashley Gaddie, 33, is accused of murdering Dannielle Finlay-Jones, 31, at a house in Cranebook on Sunday morning, just hours after she had introduced him to her friends for the first time at a nearby pub.

As terrifying details of Ms Finlay-Jones’ death came to light, a woman who had also been dating Gaddie up until a day before detailed revealed how she went to his house to collect her belongings and couldn’t work out why he wasn’t home.

Karla Tauro told The Daily Telegraph she texted Gaddie from the street outside his Five Dock apartment at 3.15pm on Sunday – about the same time NSW Police were launching a murder investigation across town.

It wasn’t until detectives arrived at her place looking for him a day later that she realised why he did not answer.

Ashley Gaddie's Tinder profile.

25-year-old Karla Tauro met Gaddie on the dating app just weeks before the death of Dannielle Finlay-Jones.

“I was the last person this guy had been in contact with,” Ms Tauro, 25, said.

“I had most recently had a conversation with him on Saturday night. I was organising with him to retrieve some of my belongings from his house.

“The detective that I was dealing with gave me his card with his email on it … it said ‘Homicide Squad’.

“My face just dropped. My stomach completely sank and dropped, I was in shock – I was scared, and my anxiety levels rose.”

Gaddie, 33, was involved in a tense negotiation with NSW Police on Tuesday night after a 48-hour manhunt saw him located at Fletcher’s Lookout in the Blue Mountains.

Their search for him had started about 2.30pm on Sunday when they were called to a home in Cranebrook after Ms Findlay-Jones’ body was discovered.

31-year-old Dannielle Finlay-Jones’s body was found in a Cranebrook home on Sunday.

Police will allege the keen soccer player had gone to The Marsden Brewhouse in Marsden Park on Saturday night with Gaddie, to introduce him to her friends for the first time.

Afterwards they went back to Ms Findlay-Jones’ friend’s home and spent the night together.

It was not until the next afternoon that her friends walked in and found her in the bedroom alone, suffering a severe injury to her head.

Police sources said up until that point, Ms Findlay-Jones’ friends simply assumed she and her love interest were sleeping in.

Ms Tauro said she first matched with Gaddie on Tinder on November 22, swiping right on his profile which included photos of him enjoying the outdoors and working as a driller.

Gaddie’s Tinder profile included pictures of him enjoying the outdoors.

Police cornered the accused killer in the Blue Mountains on Tuesday night.

Things moved quickly and within a week she had spent four consecutive nights at his home.

Not long later he had cleared out several drawers at his apartment for her, but a series of rapidly escalating verbal arguments in the early part of December and his behaviour made her question if the relationship was heading in the right direction.

Last Friday she texted him saying she wanted to end their whirlwind Tinder romance. He replied a day later.

“I most recently had a conversation with him on Saturday. I was organising with him to retrieve some of my belongings from his house,” Ms Tauro said.

“He said to me: ‘Tomorrow arvo’s good for you? I’m not going to beg you to stay’.

“I said: ‘Yep. Tomorrow is fine’.

“I messaged him about 3.15pm (on Sunday) letting him know I was on my way.”

1. Karla Tauro (right) and Ashley Gaddie (left)

2. Karla Tauro (right) and Ashley Gaddie (left)

3. Karla Tauro (right) and Ashley Gaddie (left)

4. Karla Tauro (right) and Ashley Gaddie (left)

Ms Tauro said she buzzed the door to his apartment but did not get an answer, so texted him again, before a second attempt at getting Gaddie’s attention with the buzzer.

When he still did not reply to her she left.

The Tinder profile Ms Tauro first saw when she swiped right on Gaddie featured photos of him enjoying the outdoors – including the Blue Mountains – and on the job working as a driller.

In his expletive-laden “about me” section he claimed he had recently split with a girlfriend.

But another woman who Gaddie briefly tried to romance before NSW Police took out an AVO against him for her protection, said she believed he was at one point married.

“We got close, but not to the point of romance, and once I noticed signs of his bad behaviour I stopped contact,” the woman said.

“(But then I got) a visit from his wife which I didn’t know he had and then I put the AVO out on him after he visited my house in the middle of the night and carved ‘SL**’ in the back of my car.

“He was very intense and possessive and scary and we weren’t even properly romantically involved … I can’t imagine if we were.”