After 13 years and having justice heartbreakingly ripped from under them, Leisl Smith’s family finally have answers.

On Monday, a coroner found that Ms Smith, a beloved Central Coast woman, was killed by her former partner James Scott Church and her body was dumped in the Hunter Valley.

Church was long suspected of killing Ms Smith and, in 2022, he stood trial in the NSW Supreme Court having pleaded not guilty to her murder.

He remained on bail, but a day before Justice Elizabeth Fullerton was set to deliver her verdict following a judge-alone trial, Church died by suicide.

His death meant that Justice Fullerton’s judgment could not be handed down and was sealed.

Answers had evaded Ms Smith’s family, until Monday when coroner Harriet Grahame found that she was murdered by Church.

‘I

See Full Page