A man and a woman are due to face separate NSW courts charged over the murder of a 29-year-old woman.
Danielle Easey’s body was found wrapped in plastic in a creek near Newcastle in August.
A 33-year-old man was arrested in Cardiff, Lake Macquarie, on Thursday, taken to Belmont Police Station and later charged with murder.
A 32-year-old woman was arrested at a home in the Newcastle suburb of Holmesville and charged with accessory after the fact to murder and dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception.
“Police will allege in court that the woman has assisted the man by impersonating Danielle on one of her social media accounts after her death to gain access to money,” police said in a statement early on Friday.
The man is due to appear in the Belmont Local Court on Friday while the woman is expected to face the Toronto Local Court, also on Friday.
The body of the 29-year-old Easey, a mother of two, was found floating in Cockle Creek at Killingworth on August 31.
An autopsy revealed she had been seriously assaulted and stabbed. Police said she was murdered at a home in the Central Coast suburb of Narara, on or around Saturday 17 August, before being dumped at Cockle Creek.
Police searched the two properties where the arrests were made as well as a Narara home. A Mitsubishi car was also seized.
Easey, who was known to police, lived in Booragul in Lake Macquarie but more recently was couch surfing at homes in the area.
Police said she had recently become involved in the drug scene and her family last had contact with her several weeks before the discovery of her body.
Detective Acting Superintendent Jason Dickinson told reporters on Thursday that police were not looking to make more arrests at this stage.
“Based on the information we have to hand today, there’s nothing indicating there’s any other people involved,” Det Acting Supt Dickinson said.
Det Acting Supt Dickinson said police had been in frequent touch with Easey’s family and information from the public had played a role in the arrests.
He said police believed the two arrested people and Easey were associates for “a number of years” but declined to elaborate.
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