More than 13 years after Central Coast woman Leisl Smith vanished without a trace, a coroner has ruled she was murdered by her controlling 51-year-old partner.
Smith, 23, was last seen on CCTV climbing into a white ute at Tuggerah railway station in August 2012. The vehicle belonged to her boyfriend, James Church, who was later charged with her murder.
Church faced trial in the NSW Supreme Court a decade later, but the jury’s verdict was sealed after he died by suicide on the eve of its delivery in July 2022.
On Monday, September 29, 2025, Coroner Harriet Grahame delivered her findings, concluding Smith was killed by Church before midnight on August 19, 2012, at a remote location in the Upper Hunter.
The ruling finally gave Smith’s family answers to painful questions that had lingered for more than a decade about the fate of their “fiercely free-spirited” daughter and sister.
Be the first to comment on "Coroner rules Tuggerah woman killed by partner"