An adopted daughter who brutally murdered her mother tried to cover her tracks with a chilling triple-0 call, claiming intruders broke in and attacked her mother.
Teaching student Simona Zafirovska, then 20, made the frantic call just hours she bludgeoned Radica Zafirovska, 56, to death with a wooden stake The Gap in Brisbane's inner northwest on October 28, 2016.
The details of that call have been made public for the first time after Zafirovska, now, 22, was given a life sentence in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Simona Zafirovska, 22, (pictured in a forensic jumpsuit) was sentenced to life behind bars on Wednesday for murdering her mother
The woman, who was adopted as a child, used a wooden stake (pictured) to beat her mother to death as she slept. She was beaten so severely that her brain was exposed
'There's somebody in my house,' Simona whispered down the phone line to a triple-0 operator.
'I can hear them and the dogs have been barking.'
When asked by the operator what she can see or hear she replied: 'Footsteps on the wooden, from the wooden floors.'
During the 4.55 minute call, Zafirovska then told the operator she was hiding in her bedroom and wasn't sure if the intruders were still there.
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ShareRadica Zafirovska died from 26 severe injuries, including skull fractures and brain bleeding
The murder weapon, a wooden plank pictured above, was found in Zafirovska's bedroom
'But I can still hear something,' she whispered. 'I can hear someone speaking.'
She then admitted she was too scared to leave her room.
'OK, don't talk unless you have to,' the operator said.
The phone call was described as an elaborate ruse during sentencing.
'You maintained that ruse in your triple-zero call when you pretended falsely that there were intruders in the house,' Justice Ann Lyons said.
'You then falsely caused a disturbance in the house to make it look as though there were intruders in the house. By the verdict it's clear the jury has not accepted that that was, in fact, the case.'
The jury reached an unanimous verdict on Wednesday after a day of deliberations.
The court heard on Wednesday that Zafirovska only discovered she wasn't Radica's biological daughter after the murder, when police tested the pair's DNA to try and track down the killer, The Courier Mail reported.
Radica adopted Zafirovska as a young child in Macedonia before they moved to Australia.
Neighbours told the jury earlier during the trial they heard no dogs barking and didn't see anyone else at the home that morning.
Prosecutors told the court Zafirovska bludgeoned her mother to death with a piece of artificial wood later found in the accused's bedroom.
Zafirovska (pictured in a forensic jumpsuit) made a chilling phone call to triple-zero just hours after she brutally murdered her mother in their Brisbane home in 2016
Radica was remembered as a loving person as Zafirovska's sentence was handed down.
Throughout the trial, her friends testified 'what a loving person she was and how fond of you (Zafirovska) she was, how much she loved you, how generous she was to you', Justice Lyons noted.
Zafirovska even told police how Radica had only 'given her good and never bad', the trial heard.
Zafirovska only learnt she wasn't Radica's biological daughter after the murder when police tested the pair's DNA. Pictured are her fingernails
But Radica died with 26 severe injuries, including skull fractures and brain bleeding.
'(It) indicates the force with which you killed your mother,' Justice Lyons said.
'She was horribly, horribly injured.'
Zafirovska pleaded not guilty at the start of her lengthy trial last month before the jury found her guilty on Wednesday.
She has been sentenced to life in jail with a non-parole period of 20 years.
With time already served, she will be eligible for release in November 2035.
Simona Zafirovska is pictured during her arrest in 2016
Zafirovska will be eligible for release in November 2035. Pictured is the crime scene
Zafirovska was motionless, sobbing and gasps were heard in the near-full public gallery when the verdict was read out.
'We'll miss her terribly,' a family victim impact statement read.
'She was a wonderful person and she didn't deserve this.
'She didn't deserve to lose her life in such a horrific way. She was a very positive person full of life.
Zafirovska's solicitor confirmed they had lodged an appeal.
Pictured are forensic investigators at the crime scene in 2016. Simona Zafirovska attempted to cover up the crime by making a frantic triple-zero call and pretending Radica had been killed by intruders
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