Ms Kelly’s cousin Michelle Enright was yesterday called to give evidence in the trials of Christine Ann Lyons and Ronald Lyons, who have each pleaded not guilty to the murder and attempted murder of Ms Kelly.

Former housemate Peter Arthur has admitted to killing her.

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Ms Enright said that in her last phone conversation with Ms Kelly, she was told that “they” had made Ms Kelly drink a liquid that made her feel “funny” in the head, and were trying to make it look like suicide.

“She was upset and she said ‘They only wanted me for my kids’,” Ms Enright said.

She told the court she advised Ms Kelly to “get out”, but Ms Kelly said “they” would see her.

“I told her, I said ‘Sam,’ I said, ‘You’ve got to get out’… She said, ‘I can’t, I feel too dizzy, I wouldn’t make it’,” Ms Enright said.

She told the court that while she was on the phone to Ms Kelly, she heard “him” come in and then a “thump, thump” noise, followed by a man saying “Oh f--k, she’s on the phone”.

She said the man spoke to her.

“He said ‘Who is this?’, and I said to him ‘You thought you’d get away with it, didn’t ya?’ He – I hung up,” Ms Enright said.

She said Ms Kelly had not told her who “they” were, but told the court they were “the people who lived in the house”.

Ms Lyons’ defence lawyer Peter Kilduff asked Ms Enright if she thought about telling police about this phone call.

She told the court that after the phone call she went back to bed and cried, and in the morning woke up and “done things normal”.

“I just forgot everything. I just couldn’t cope and I must’ve just blocked it out, I just couldn’t cope,” Ms Enright said.

Mr Kilduff asked Ms Enright why she did not mention this phone conversation in her first statement in February 2016, to which she said “I only can tell you what I remember”.

The court heard a portion of Ms Enright’s first statement, in which she told police that her last phone call with the deceased woman was one in which Ms Kelly told her she would call her back, but never did.

Ms Enright said it was when she made her second statement in December 2016 that she remembered the phone call of the night of the murder.

Mr Kilduff stated that Ms Enright had never reported speaking with the murderer during that call in any of her statements, the last of which was made yesterday.

“Everything that I have told you is the truth,” she said.

Mr Kilduff then asked Ms Enright if it was correct that in her second statement she had reported she said on the phone "You thought you got away with it, didn't you?", which she replied was correct.

The court heard it was Ms Enright’s daughter who had informed her Ms Kelly was missing.

“When your daughter came to you and said ‘Sam’s missing’, you would have said… ‘I know she has been murdered’, wouldn’t you?” Mr Kilduff asked.

“I didn’t remember, I just didn’t remember then… I only had little bits and pieces in my head,” she replied.

Under questioning from Mr Lyons’ lawyer Jarrod Williams, Ms Enright said she knew Ms Kelly was missing when she made her first statement in February 2016.

“If this was true, what you say... It would have been the first thing you said to police, that you believed you had heard her, heard Sam be killed?” Mr Williams asked.

“I didn’t remember,” Ms Enright replied.

Mr Williams suggested that she did not say anything to police about the call when she made the first statement because it did not happen, but Ms Enright responded everything she said in her statements was true.

“I only remember what I remember, and I’ve told you what I remember as I’ve remembered it, because my mind couldn’t cope with it,” she said.

The court heard that police had accessed Ms Enright’s phone records from January 19 to 26, 2016.

“If I suggest to you there's no phone call recorded in those records from Samantha, does that surprise you?” Mr Williams asked

Ms Enright said she was talking to Ms Kelly on the phone.

Mr Williams suggested that what Ms Enright had said she heard from Ms Kelly in phone calls was untrue, which she denied.

He also asked Ms Enright whether she knew that Ms Kelly had been killed with a hammer when she made her December statement, but she said she only told what she remembered.

The court also heard from Ms Enright that Ms Kelly did not want to move from Ballarat to Bendigo, but she felt she had to because “they” were going to take her children.

Ms Enright said Ms Kelly was living with a woman in Ballarat who she was unhappy having live with her, and this same woman she lived with in Bendigo.

She said Ms Kelly told her this woman was “trying to take over her and the kids”.

Ms Kelly’s friend from Ballarat, Jacqueline Booth, also gave evidence.

She said that in mid-January 2016, Ms Kelly had felt smothered living in the house with the accused and Arthur.

Under cross-examination by Ms Lyons' defence counsel Peter Kilduff, Ms Booth said this related to the cramped conditions in the home.

When later asked by prosecutor Ben Ihle if Ms Kelly had said anything about the accused in this conversation, Ms Booth said yes.

"She said that… she felt like they were taking over her kids," Ms Booth said.

Ms Booth told the court of Ms Kelly as a mother.

“She was a wonderful mum, fantastic. She had a strict routine for the kids. And they loved their mum,” she said.

Ms Booth said Ms Kelly decided to move from Bendigo to Ballarat after visiting for a holiday because she wanted to make a fresh start and get away from issues with her ex-partner. 

The court also heard that Ms Kelly had told Ms Booth that Arthur had hit one of her children at the Kangaroo Flat home they eventually moved into.

Ms Booth said that Ms Kelly and her former partner had made threats against one another. The trial continues.