‘She was clean’: jury hears woman who calmed murder accused Nilsson smelled fabric softener

A woman who lay down next to accused murderer Caroline Nilsson and calmed her has told a Supreme Court jury she could smell fabric softener.

Laura-Lee Shanahan said she could smell fabric softener when she lay down next to Caroline Dela Rose Nilsson (pictured). Picture: NCA NewsWire/Naomi Jellicoe

A woman who lay down next to accused murderer Caroline Dela Rose Nilsson and calmed her after she was discovered with her hands and feet bound has told a Supreme Court jury she could smell fabric softener.

The court also heard Nilsson’s hair was clean and “staticy”, consistent with having been blow-dried.

Nilsson, 29, has pleaded not guilty to murdering her mother-in-law Myrna Nilsson at the home they shared on Bunbury Terrace at Valley View, in Adelaide’s north, on September 30, 2016.

Giving evidence on Monday, Laura-Lee Shanahan said she was visiting a friend who lived on that street when they found Nilsson outside her nearby home.

She told the jury Nilsson’s hands and feet were bound, and she had packing tape around her head.

“I went on to the ground to sit behind her and she was saying ‘my kids, my kids’ and crying,” Ms Shanahan told the jury.

She said she lay down behind Nilsson and tried to calm her by telling her she was safe and she was not alone.

While she was close to Nilsson, Ms Shanahan said she noticed she was wearing a “very delicate” cotton jumper, and detected a “clean, sort of fabric softener smell”.

“There was no damage or deterioration or any wear and tear... (the fabric) wasn’t torn or pulled or frayed in any way,” she said.

“She was clean.”

Ms Shanahan said she did not notice any visible injuries on Nilsson’s skin in the time she was with her.

Prosecutors allege Nilsson bludgeoned her mother-in-law to death in the laundry of the house they shared, then told police they were the victims of a violent home invasion.

The court has heard she told them that two or three men with “loud and angry voices” assaulted her, tied her up with speaker wire and tape, and ransacked the house.

It is alleged she said in a police interview she was punched in the stomach and hit to the head from behind, before she was tied up by the intruders.

Jurors have heard data collected from an Apple Watch worn by the 57-year-old deceased showed a “flurry of activity” recorded about 6.30pm, and that “after that flurry, all movement stops”.

Prosecutors say an Apple Watch worn by Myrna Nilsson recorded a “flurry” of activity, then “all movement stops”. Picture: Supplied

Elise Faulkner, a paramedic who was called to the scene, told the trial on Monday she saw the family's three children sitting in a police car later that night.

Ms Faulkner said she noticed Nilsson’s hair was clean and “quite staticy” while she was removing the packing tape.

“The static from blow-dried hair sticks to everything,” she said.

Lawyers for Nilsson have told the court she did not kill her mother-in-law, and have denied she “bound and gagged herself” and put on a performance.

The trial is continuing before Justice Chris Bleby.