For weeks after the last time Leona Rei-Paku saw her former girlfriend, she was assured that Sarah Gatt was in rehab and they'd see each other again soon.
She took Ms Gatt's on-and-off again boyfriend Andrew Baker at his word when he told her she'd be out by Mother's Day in 2017, she told the Victorian Supreme Court on Tuesday.
But Ms Gatt wasn't in rehab.
Her body was discovered by police in January 2018 in the bathtub of her Kensington public housing townhouse, eight months after Baker is alleged to have killed her.
She was partially naked, wrapped in power cords and covered with a hairdryer, a lamp, a stuffed bear and other household items.
Baker is standing trial for murder, having pleaded not guilty to killing her sometime between April 19 and 23, 2017.
Ms Rei-Paku is the last person who admits seeing Ms Gatt alive, in the early hours of April 19.
The pair had also been on-and-off, but Ms Gatt had gone back to Baker out of obligation after he told her he had bowel cancer and may not have long to live.
But she told jurors on Tuesday that in the early hours of April 19, Ms Gatt began to move things back into her Maribyrnong home.
Later that morning Ms Gatt left to go back to her house. Ms Rei-Paku didn't see her alive again.
Every fortnight after that, Ms Rei-Paku said she would buy a six pack of alcohol and some drugs and would knock on Ms Gatt's door.
After three or four visits with no answer, she assumed Baker had taken her somewhere, so she set out to track him down.
Baker told her Ms Gatt was in rehab, or in a women's shelter, and she would be out sometime around Mothers Day, she said.
"He agreed I could come and have a talk to her then, but she's fine and stuff," Ms Rei-Paku said.
Sometime later, Ms Rei-Paku went back to Ms Gatt's Kensington home with Baker.
He told here "there's this thing in the bathtub, you've got to see it", she said.
"He didn't tell me it was a body until I got there."
She saw a skeleton foot and ankle, but said she didn't know it was real.
Baker admits knowing about the body in the bathtub.
His barrister John Saunders previously cautioned jurors against judging Baker and others for not calling police.
Those people did not live a normal lifestyle, he said.
Many, if not all, had mental health issues and battle drug and alcohol abuse, he said, describing them as people who live "on the outskirts of our society".
"Andrew Baker did not murder Sarah Gatt. He is not responsible for her death," he said.
Mr Saunders said Ms Rei-Paku couldn't be ruled out as a suspect, noting that in May 2017 she posed as Ms Gatt at Centrelink to try and divert payments to her own bank account.
Ms Rei-Paku's evidence is expected to continue on Wednesday.
