A NURSE who cared for missing Pyramid Hill woman Krystal Fraser in the days before she disappeared has recalled how she seemed "alone and scared" while staying at Bendigo Health's Medihotel in June, 2009.
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Ms Fraser was heavily pregnant and was staying at the facility close to Bendigo Hospital.
Registered nurse David Reid said Ms Fraser seemed "needy" and would often come to the staff area with "all sorts of trivial matters" and needed help finding things that were easy to locate.
Ms Fraser, who had an intellectual disability, has not been seen since June 20, 2009 and has not touched her bank accounts since that time.
Coroner Katherine Lorenz is holding an inquest in Melbourne into her disappearance and suspected death.
On Tuesday the inquest was told that the Medihotel was used by people who needed to be close to the hospital, but who had not actually been admitted as patients.
Mr Reid and his colleague, registered nurse Jennifer Randall, both gave evidence at the inquest.
The nurses recalled trying to talk Ms Fraser out of leaving the facility to go to a birthday party at Pyramid Hill on June 20.
"She didn't say why she needed to go, she was just very excited about it," Ms Randall said.
"She just seemed excited to have been invited ... like when a child is excited to be invited to a birthday party."
Mr Reid and Ms Randall both described Ms Fraser as "childlike".
Ms Randall said the nurses had no power to stop her from leaving but were very concerned about Ms Fraser's plans to walk to the train station and journey to Pyramid Hill that evening.
She said they gave Ms Fraser a taxi voucher to get to the station because they didn't want her to walk there.
"She left all her clothes, her suitcase and the stuffed toy she brought for her child in her room," Ms Randall said.
"It seemed like everything she had was still there - except for the clothes she was wearing.
"I assumed she would come back the next day."
Ms Randall recalled ringing Ms Fraser's phone repeatedly - between six and 12 times - the following day to locate her, without success.
Another witness at the inquest recalled being a passenger on the train, sitting next to Ms Fraser on the journey.
Boort bus company owner Hazel Whitmore said she had recognised Ms Fraser immediately.
"I was very, very concerned about her, because I thought that at nine-and-a-half months' pregnant she should not have been where she was," Ms Whitmore said.
"I noticed a lanyard around her neck that said Bendigo Hospital - it had the number of the room she was in.
"She did not seem concerned at all. She said she was going to a party at Pyramid Hill. She seemed happy."
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Ms Whitmore said Ms Fraser opened her wallet and looked at it and there was no money inside.
She said she handed Ms Fraser two $5 notes and asked her to promise she would spend them on a train trip back to Bendigo Hospital the following day.
Another witness, Nicholas Dingfelder, said he spoke to Ms Fraser when he got off the train.
He said they had known each other for years and he knew she had a housing commission flat.
"I was interested in getting one of these commission flats for myself," he said.
"I asked her how to go about it - I had seen her down the street a couple of weeks prior to when I saw her on the train.
"As soon as I saw her she said 'how are you going bro? I got that paperwork for you for that flat' and I remember her shoving the paperwork at me."
Mr Dingfelder said they chatted for a short while and he had noticed a man walking alongside them at a distance of five or six metres, with his hands in his pockets, kicking train rocks.
"Krystal said - 'I'd better go or he will get upset at me' and then I knew they were obviously together, then I said 'yeah, cool' and they veered off across the train tracks towards the cafe."
Mr Dingfelder said the man "looked flashy" and was nicely dressed and seemed to have had a fresh haircut.
He said he did not know who the man was but had been able to pick him out of a group of 12 photos shown to him by police. Mr Dingfelder said police had not told him who the man was and he still did not know his name.
The inquest will continue on Wednesday morning.
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