As he says many times, he was there that night — the night Amy Wensley died from a shotgun blast to the head.
A gunshot fired while her children and belongings were already packed in a car, with the engine running and a destination — away from her partner David Simmons — in mind.
Gareth Price was Mr Simmons’ best friend. He knew Amy. His partner knew Amy. And he insists he knows what happened to her on the last day of her life in June 2014.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today
“It was a suicide. That is what it was — I was there. It was suicide. She shot herself. That’s what happened there. She blew her head off her shoulders,” he says.
This is what Mr Price told the police, told the inquest, and has now told Liam Bartlett, in a tense new interview conducted for Seven’s gripping podcast The Truth About Amy.
The podcast has pieced the circumstances of Amy’s death, which police almost immediately ruled a suicide.
Which a coroner then concluded could not be definitively called that. But could not be surely said to be a homicide either.
That it is partly because the early police action meant the room Amy died in was comprehensively cleaned before forensic experts could go over it.
A room that Mr Price admits he was in moments after that fatal shot was fired.
“I was right there. Like in the corner of the room. I pushed the door open. And all I seen was the body on the floor,” he says.
“What would you do? If that happened to you? In that situation? What would you do? Please tell me?”
What Mr Price claims he did do was flick the gun that he says was sat in Amy’s lap onto the floor, and then place a towel over her head.
He remembered that towel being red. It was actually blue.
He tells Bartlett that he saw the gun pointing upwards under her chin. But the wound was most prominent at her right temple.
He denied moving a bin down from the house to the end of the gravel road leading to it on that night — despite a witness claiming they saw him do it.
And Mr Price says he never saw any violence in the relationship between Amy and Mr Simmons. Whereas Amy had told friends Mr Simmons had physically abused her — and had sent a photo of bruises on her neck to a friend many months before.
Steadfastly, he insists he nor Mr Simmons had anything to do with Amy’s death.
“He didn’t do it. Simmo is a good buddy, man. He’s a good man. He wouldn’t have done that,” he says.
“He didn’t kill Amy. He did not shoot Amy. She shot herself. That’s 100 per cent. I know that for a fact.”
Mr Price admits that night has taken a toll on him, as it has on all those who knew Amy well.
“When that kind of stuff happens – no-one understands. It’s bad, it’s shocking, it’s not a good thing to see,” he says.
He also revealed he does not see Mr Simmons as much as he did.
“We actually had a bit of a disagreement. He was actually living with me for a little while,” Mr Price said.
“But that was negative, negative energy — it doesn’t go well. I don’t like negative energy, it’s is not good for anybody, so I asked him to leave nicely.
“It is hard to live and move on with my life. I don’t even know how to go forward after this now. Because the truth is the truth — the truth always comes out, no matter what.”
Anyone with information can email [email protected] or leave an anonymous tip at www.thetruthaboutamy.org
