Her ex-partner Danny Zayat, 30, has been accused of murdering her the day before, shortly after she made a triple-zero call.<\/p>\n
![\"Tatiana](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/98503f3f-a292-4e57-a644-47e178a8edcb.jpeg\")
Tatiana “Tanya” Dokhotaru, 34, was pronounced dead by paramedics attending her apartment. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
A NSW Supreme Court jury has heard of threats, abuse and violence during the volatile relationship.<\/p>\n
Footage of police interviews with a young child, who found the business owner’s body in the Liverpool complex, was played to jurors today.<\/p>\n
In interviews conducted the day after Dokhotaru’s death, the child – who cannot be legally identified – told officers they found the 34-year-old on the couch with blood coming out of her nose.<\/p>\n
![\"Danny](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/e8685878-ec43-48c7-b48d-e3ea9f014307.jpeg\")
Danny Zayat, 30, has been accused of murdering her the day before, shortly after she made a triple-zero call. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
The child tried to rouse Dokhotaru before Zayat arrived and called police and paramedics.<\/p>\n
“No waking up,” the youngster said during the interview.<\/p>\n
Officers were told about an argument between the couple the previous night when a television and glass flower vase were broken.<\/p>\n
The child was again interviewed in September 2025, telling police there had been no blood on Dokhotaru.<\/p>\n
They said they heard the woman “screaming … ‘help me, help me’.”<\/p>\n
During questioning today, the child said Zayat did not break the television or vase but he had been “fake crying” when police arrived.<\/p>\n
“He was crying but he wasn’t sad,” the child told defence barrister Madeleine Avenell SC.<\/p>\n
Jurors also heard of injuries and threats to Dokhotaru in the year before she died.<\/p>\n
Her mother Olya Dokhotaru and stepfather Denis Thievin, who both live in Canada, recounted their daughter’s visit in 2022 during which she spoke to Zayat almost daily over the phone.<\/p>\n
Olya said she heard the concreter threaten to kill his ex-partner if she didn’t return home, while calling her a “f—— fat slut” and a “white f—— bitch”.<\/p>\n
“I can’t imagine that a young man can speak like that with his wife,” she said.<\/p>\n
Thievin said there was a lot of screaming during these calls and his stepdaughter was typically crying.<\/p>\n
“These were not pleasant phone calls,” he said.<\/p>\n
When Dokhotaru returned to Australia, she moved into an apartment instead of a house so she could be around neighbours for safety, the court heard.<\/p>\n
Weeks before she was found dead, the 34-year-old sent a video to her mother – played to the court – which showed bruises around her throat.<\/p>\n
“You can see the fingerprints around her neck,” Olya said.<\/p>\n
The day before her body was discovered, Dokhotaru told her mother via text that she was at the doctor with “bad bruising”.<\/p>\n
She said she had fallen over her vacuum cleaner and hit the table.<\/p>\n
Zayat has pleaded not guilty to murder, denying his involvement in his ex-partner’s death or being responsible for any physical violence towards her in their relationship.<\/p>\n
He faces an alternative charge of manslaughter.<\/p>\n
The concreter called triple zero the day after her alleged murder, attempted CPR, and was seen crying and wailing when police attended the Liverpool unit.<\/p>\n
He said Dokhotaru previously expressed thoughts of suicide and had been depressed when he left her the night before.<\/p>\n
An autopsy revealed she died from blunt-force head trauma.<\/p>\n
Her death was hastened but not caused by various substances in her system, the jury heard.<\/p>\n
The trial continues tomorrow.<\/p>\n
Support is available by calling 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732, Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A young child told police of hearing screams while in bed before waking the next day to find…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-228035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}