Merrylands death: Husband of Erin Gilbert opens up about her
The husband of a woman who was brutally murdered in their unit reveals that he came home and choked her on the floor.
Erin Gilbert, 42, was stabbed multiple times in the head with a sharp object in the living room of her rental home Merrylands, in Sydney’s western suburbs, at around 11:30 p.m. on Easter Sunday.
Her husband Nic Gilbert was absent during the alleged attack and had no idea where he would come home.
The 38-year-old said on Wednesday that he kept ringing the doorbell but his wife didn’t answer, so he decided she was probably asleep.
He then went around the back of the unit and tried to throw a rock at the window to get her attention, but eventually got in by climbing onto a wheelie bin and hoisting himself over the balcony.
“I walked across the bedroom, Erin was on her back and it looked like she was choking on blood,” he said.
Nic Gilbert (pictured) came home Sunday night to find his wife choking on her own blood
Erin Gilbert is pictured with her husband, Nic Gilbert. He found her in a pool of her own blood on Sunday
Mr Gilbert said he took out his phone, pressed the call button and spoke to the first person whose name came up.
“I just said ‘Erin is dead, help me, Erin is dead,'” he recalls.
He tried to resuscitate, but Mrs. Gilbert was dead when emergency services arrived.
Mr Gilbert said he felt he should have been there to stop the attack, and believes he failed her parents.
“She just completed me, I miss everything about her,” he said.
Mr. Gilbert assisted police with their investigation on Sunday night and has been released without charge.
Clearly there is CCTV to back up his alibi. Mr. Gilbert said he has no idea who attacked her.
Police remain baffled by Ms. Gilbert’s mysterious death and have appealed to the public to help find her killer.
Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Gilbert revealed on social media that he had been having problems at home – with his cat Bonnie going missing.
‘I’m going crazy, I can’t find Bonnie anywhere, please. Can the public help me find our cat Bonnie.
“This is all (too) much for me, I don’t know what to do,” he wrote.
Ms. Gilbert’s body was discovered face down in a pool of blood in a unit block (forensic police pictured)
Erin Gilbert and her husband Nic (pictured) got married in 2020. He tried to save her life on Sunday
On Tuesday afternoon, he took to Facebook to pay tribute to his late wife, updating his bio to say, “I was broken and then I found my best, my better half.”
“Without you bub… I love you.”
In an earlier post in May 2019, he wrote a post dedicated to Mrs. Gilbert and their pet cat, Bonnie – with a hint that someone had tried to ‘get in between them’.
“They are my world and without them I would be lost,” wrote Mr. Gilbert.
“To the horrible fake lonely person who keeps trying to get between us, well I suppose you remind us that we are so deeply in love that no matter what games you try to play or how good you are at them you won’t come between us.
“And the day you do, I promise you there will be no God to protect you from me!”
Mr. Gilbert spoke fondly of his future wife that same year, saying, “I fell in love because after getting to know you I realized I wanted to make you a permanent part of my world.”
Daily Mail Australia does not suggest that Mr. Gilbert or the unknown ‘lone person’ is responsible for Ms. Gilbert’s death.
The couple were both known to the police for ‘small business’.
Detectives have launched Strike Force Trevelyan to get to the bottom of what happened in Ms Gilbert’s final hours at her home on Sunday night.
Mr Gilbert hinted in May 2019 that someone had tried to come between him and his wife (pictured, with a picture of his cat Bonnie)
“We definitely think something happened on Sunday night … when the police arrived, she hadn’t long died,” Cumberland Police Superintendent Andrew Holland told reporters on Tuesday.
“Erin was home that night in her apartment building…we know neighbors heard her in the apartment building, she spoke that night.
“We’re just concerned that someone else has been on the block with her.”
“We need to know what happened, who was there.”
Supt Holland revealed that her husband made the triple-0 call and has been “very cooperative” with police during their investigation.
He added that Ms. Gilbert’s family has asked for privacy and that her partner is well known in the local community.
No one has been ruled out as a suspect. “Anyone who has lost a daughter can only imagine how hard it is for (the family),” Supt Holland said.
“People don’t realize that something they’ve seen days before can be a useful piece of information.
“We need a timeline of what happened before the incident.”
It is clear that the couple moved to Merrylands seven months ago.
Police are urging anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers.