A young child told police of hearing screams while in bed before waking the next day to find a woman dead on a couch.
Tatiana “Tanya” Dokhotaru, 34, was pronounced dead by paramedics attending her apartment in southwest Sydney on a Saturday in May 2023.
Her ex-partner Danny Zayat, 30, has been accused of murdering her the day before, shortly after she made a triple-zero call.
A NSW Supreme Court jury has heard of threats, abuse and violence during the volatile relationship.
Footage of police interviews with a young child, who found the business owner’s body in the Liverpool complex, was played to jurors on Monday.
In interviews conducted the day after Ms 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.
The child tried to rouse Ms Dokhotaru before Zayat arrived and called police and paramedics.
“No waking up,” the youngster said during the interview.
Officers were told about an argument between the couple the previous night when a television and glass flower vase were broken.
The child was again interviewed in September 2025, telling police there had been no blood on Ms Dokhotaru.
They said they heard the woman “screaming … ‘help me, help me’.”
During questioning on Monday, the child said Zayat did not break the television or vase but he had been “fake crying” when police arrived.
“He was crying but he wasn’t sad,” the child told defence barrister Madeleine Avenell SC.
Jurors also heard of injuries and threats to Ms Dokhotaru in the year before she died.
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.
Olya said she heard the concreter threaten to kill his ex-partner if she didn’t return home, while calling her a “f***ing fat slut” and a “white f***ing bitch”.
“I can’t imagine that a young man can speak like that with his wife,” she said.
Mr Thievin said there was a lot of screaming during these calls and his stepdaughter was typically crying.
“These were not pleasant phone calls,” he said.
When Ms Dokhotaru returned to Australia, she moved into an apartment instead of a house so she could be around neighbours for safety, the court heard.
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.
“You can see the fingerprints around her neck,” Olya said.
The day before her body was discovered, Ms Dokhotaru told her mother via text that she was at the doctor with “bad bruising”.
She said she had fallen over her vacuum cleaner and hit the table.
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.
He faces an alternative charge of manslaughter.
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.
He said Ms Dokhotaru previously expressed thoughts of suicide and had been depressed when he left her the night before.
An autopsy revealed she died from blunt-force head trauma.
Her death was hastened but not caused by various substances in her system, the jury heard.
