A critical incident inquiry will examine the time it took police to discover the body of a dead woman in south-west Sydney more than 20 hours after a distress call.
Key points:
- A woman, 34, was found dead in a unit in Liverpool
- A triple-0 call first alerted police on Friday night, she was found on Saturday night after another call
- Danny Zayat, 28, was charged with a number of domestic violence offences
The body of the 34-year-old woman was found in a unit of a large apartment complex on Norfolk Street in Liverpool, around 8pm on Saturday.
The incident was first alerted to police in the late hours of the previous evening, after a woman allegedly being assaulted by another person at the property, who was demanding money, called triple-0.
The woman who made the call did not leave her details.
Officers arrived at the complex about 3am according to South West Metropolitan Region Commander Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith.
He said all their databases had different addresses attached to the number complicating their task of locating her.
“Police arrived … and were presented with 297 units and no obvious offence in front of them,” Assistant Commissioner Smith said.
“That was referred then to every shift that followed that and further inquiries were made there.”
It was not until another call to triple-0 from a person police believe is a neighbour, that eventually helped locate her late on Saturday.
Police arrested 28-year-old Danny Zayat and later charged him with stalk/intimidate intend fear physical etc harm (DV), contravene prohibition/restriction in AVO (DV) and destroy or damage property (DV).
Assistant Commissioner Smith said they were in a de facto relationship and he shouldn’t have been there. He hasn’t ruled out further charges.
Mr Zayat was refused bail on Sunday and is due back in Liverpool Local Court on Monday.
Assistant Commissioner Smith said police are working hard to identify what happened and a critical incident investigation would do that.
“This morning I was briefed at about 5am, and by 8.40am I declared a critical incident investigation, additional to the homicide investigation that remains underway,” he said.
“It’s there for me, that I can satisfy around the response to the triple-0 call.
“The priority given to the job, the inquiries conducted to establish that priority, the inquiries established to find the source of the anonymous triple-0 call and the officers inquiries are subject to the critical incident investigation.”
Investigations are ongoing under Strike Force Midian made up of detectives from Liverpool City detectives and State Crime Command’s Homicide Squad.