Isabela Camelo-Gomez trial hears from first police at alleged murder scene

Police have described the moment they walked into a grisly scene in a suburban Sydney home two decades before a woman was charged with murdering her mother.

A woman accused of brutally killing her mother and staging a break-in told police a white-gloved intruder broke into their home and attacked minutes before her mum was found dead, a court has heard.

A police dog handler has also told the court he took “poetic licence” by writing about a similar killing in a novel he penned years after stepping foot in the grisly scene.

Isabela Carolina Camelo-Gomez has pleaded not guilty to murdering her mother, Irene Jones, in 2001 and is facing a jury trial in the NSW Supreme Court.

Camelo-Gomez was charged in late 2019, two decades after her mother‘s death, after the NSW Police unsolved homicide squad concluded she had faked a home invasion after murdering the elderly woman.

Police officers who were called to the chaotic scene at Lansvale, on the night of the killing, stepped into the witness box on Thursday where they described the gruesome fate of Ms Jones.

Sergeant John Purcell told the jury Ms Jones was found in the kitchen of the home in a pool of blood, her throat had been cut open.

Two decades on, he told the court, he could remember Camelo-Gomez, then known as Megan Jones, rushing up to him distressed.

“She said she came out of the shower, someone tried to strangle her, she had run out of the house and thought her mother was or may still be in the house,” he told the court.

Camelo-Gomez denies killing her mother, Irene Jones, and staging a break-in in 2001.

The officer said Camelo-Gomez told them her assailant was six foot one inches tall, wearing light coloured clothing, white gloves and with a stocking over his head.

Another officer at the home that day, Senior Constable Matthew McCredie, was a dog handler with NSW Police.

The now retired officer told the court his dog acted strangely as it entered the kitchen where Ms Jones laying in the pool of blood, still in her nightdress.

Mr McCredie said he shook her by the shoulder and called out for an ambulance.

“(Her skin) was clammy and cool, but not completely cold,” he told the court.

The officer told the court he checked for a pulse and discovered a large cut to Ms Jones’ throat – his fingers were covered in blood, he recalled.

The former dog-squad officer described tracking a human scent down a footpath, finding a backpack with a sandwich, and then the track dissipated.

It indicated someone had gotten into a vehicle or had changed direction in a way that threw off his police dog, he told the court.

Irene Jones, 56, was found dead in her home in Lansvale. Picture: NSW Police

Mr McCredie was asked about a book he wrote, in retirement, about a dog squad officer.

The book, the court heard, depicted a killing with similarities to that of Ms Jones — an older woman with a cut throat.

Mr McCredie told the court he used his memory of the case while writing that chapter in the book but added distinct differences which he called “poetic licence”.

“Did (the book) describe the injuries of the deceased that her throat had been sliced from one side to the other?” Prosecutor David Scully asked.

“Did it include the murderer was caught within a week?”

Mr McCredie responded “yes” to each question.

The prosecutor pointed out those were differences from the real death of Ms Jones.

“All I remember is the blood, to be honest, it’s full of poetic licence,” Mr McCredie responded.

The book was “entertainment”, Mr McCredie told the court, his evidence was in his sworn statements to police.

Crown prosecutors claim Camelo-Gomez invented the home invasion story.

They further claim Camelo-Gomez’ mother disapproved of her relationship with a man named Carlos Camelo-Gomez.

The court has heard she married that man’s brother, in Columbia, which the Crown said was just to help with a visa.

Camelo-Gomez denies their allegations.