Murder accused Julia DeLuney allegedly asked her uncle about hidden money during funeral

Julia DeLuney is on trial in the High Court at Wellington for the murder of her 79-year-old mother Helen Gregory (insert) in her Khandallah home.

WARNING: This story contains images of a crime scene

At Helen Gregory’s funeral, her daughter allegedly asked a relative where her dead mother’s money was hidden.

“What do you know about the kitchen?” Julia DeLuney asked her uncle, Peter Wilson. “Is any money hidden in the kitchen?”

Wilson, Gregory’s younger brother, told the High Court at Wellington today that he was shocked by his niece’s question during a conversation at Gregory’s funeral.

“It blew me away, I was dumbfounded.”

DeLuney then asked if he knew where Gregory kept her diaries.

Wilson said he didn’t know his sister even kept a diary. At that point, he moved away and walked into the chapel at the funeral home.

DeLuney denies murdering her 79-year-old mother at her home in Khandallah, Wellington, in January last year.

The Crown says DeLuney killed Gregory and staged the death to look like a fall from the attic.

The defence says someone else was responsible and entered the house after DeLuney went to get help.

Blood on the walls outside the utility cupboard in Helen Gregory's house.

Wilson, who lives in Australia, is the fifth of seven children.

Gregory was the eldest, yet he told the court the two had a soft spot for each other. They would talk every month or so on a Sunday, for about an hour at a time.

Asked by Crown prosecutor Stephanie Bishop what they would talk about, Walker’s response drew laughter from those in the courtroom.

“Not so much talking as listening,” he said, explaining that his older sister was a “mobile encyclopaedia” who was happy to share information about the immediate family and her grandchildren.

In September 2023, he visited New Zealand for a family reunion, held at Waikanae, north of Wellington.

At the family gathering, he spoke to DeLuney, admitting he didn’t know her very well, having spent the past 40 years in Australia.

DeLuney told him she was in finance, specifically in the trading of cryptocurrency, which often meant she worked nights because the markets were in different time zones.

The gathering had gone well, and Gregory had brought pavola and cream, her signature dish.

She was cold and clammy

The following day, he went into Wellington and, before returning to Waikanae, called in to see Gregory, who had not been answering his calls all day.

Arriving at the house in Baroda St, he was surprised to find all the curtains drawn and a food package at the front door.

He knocked, but no one answered. Thinking his sister was asleep, he “made a bit of a racket”.

Eventually, DeLuney came to the door and told him Gregory had bumped her head and was a little unsteady on her feet, so she’d put her to bed.

When he walked into the bedroom, he didn’t recognise his sister.

Having been the life and soul at the party the day before, she was now on her bed with a greyish complexion, sunken eyes and shallow breathing.

“She was all cold and clammy. I tried to move and wake her, but she was unresponsive ... she was like a wet rag.”

Asked why no one had called an ambulance, DeLuney told him she’d called a relative, whose name is suppressed, and they were on their way.

They waited and tried to make Gregory comfortable but, when it was apparent the relative wasn’t coming, Wilson called them. The person allegedly said they hadn’t received any calls from DeLuney all day.

DeLuney also told him the relative was the only one who could call an ambulance, which surprised him because he thought anyone could do that.

Finally, the relative arrived and an ambulance took Gregory to hospital, where she spent several days.

Julia DeLuney is accused of killing her mother and staging the death to look like a fall. Photo / Mark Mitchell

It wasn’t a very nice homecoming

After Gregory returned home from hospital, Wilson again called around to see her. He found her busy washing loads of bedding.

She told him that, while she was in hospital, DeLuney and her husband, Antonio, had stayed at the house.

They had kept their dogs inside and left the heaters running, she said. There was dog poo everywhere and she was cleaning the house.

“It wasn’t a very nice homecoming,” he said.

During the visit, Gregory also brought up the subject of missing money, showing her brother a plastic bag from her wardrobe, which she said had contained $85,000 but now held only $2800.

Wilson, a carpetener, told his sister she should hide the money in the toe space of the bottom drawer in her kitchen. He removed the drawer and helped her hide the money.

His last conversation with his sister was on January 21, three days before she died. They discussed more missing money.

This time, Gregory told him $14,000 had gone missing and gave him the name of the person she thought was responsible. That person, whose name is suppressed, has given evidence and denied taking the money.

Wilson also recalled Gregory telling him that DeLuney was turning up and helping herself to things.

At one point, he suggested his sister should get a restraining order against DeLuney.

The trial before Justice Peter Churchman is now at the end of its third week and is expected to continue for another week.

Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist for 20 years, including at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently, she was a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice.