New footage shows the moment a drug-addled psychotic killer appears to realise the gravity of the situation he is in during a police interview over his new girlfriend’s brutal death.
Mother-of-three Synamin Bell, 26, was found beaten to death at her Millicent home near Mount Gambier in south-east South Australia in 2022.
Her crushed skull had been bludgeoned with a baseball bat before she was repeatedly stabbed.
Her new boyfriend at the time Cody James Edwards, then 26, was at the scene after he called police himself.
Astonishing police bodycam footage – and Edwards’ police interview – can be shown for the first time after he changed his plea a week into his murder trial last month.
He initially pleaded not guilty to murder but changed his plea to guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
The bodycam footage showed the dramatic moments that unfolded after police arrived at the scene.
‘Get on the floor! Get on the ground. Get down!’ officers yelled.
Cody James Edwards struggled to answer detectives’ questions during his police interview
Mother-of-three Synamin Bell was beaten and stabbed to death by her new boyfriend
The camera then zoomed in on Edwards lying on the ground.
‘I’m surrounding,’ he said.
Edwards admitted to being under the influence of drugs when an officer asked what happened.
‘LSD, sir,’ he replied.
Police then head inside the home, where they were confronted by the grisly scene of Ms Bell’s body in one of the bedrooms.
‘F***!’ one shocked officer said.
Edwards was eventually escorted away by officers and put in the back of a paddy wagon.
Back at the police station, an incoherent Edwards was captured struggling to answer questions during an interview with detectives.
‘Are you OK?’ the concerned officer asked.
Edwards replied: ‘Am I OK? Yeah.
‘This is real, isn’t it?’ F***!’
he’s seen lying with his head on the table and bangs his head several times
‘Goddammit!’ he said.
Edwards placed his head face down on the table as he came to terms with the consequences of his actions
The court heard that Edwards was in the middle of a ‘full-blown paranoia psychosis’ and acted in ‘self defence’ after consuming psychoactive drugs on the night that Ms Bell died.
Ms Bell’s family are angry at the prospect that Edwards may spend less time behind bars as a result of his manslaughter plea being accepted.
They strongly believe that drug use shouldn’t be an excuse for the downgraded charge.
‘This bloke is going to go about his life in another six or seven years’ time, according to what we have been told,’ her brother Paul told Nine News.
‘It’s absolutely mind-blowing they can accept this.’
Edwards remains behind bars and will return in court sentencing submissions in September.
At the time of her death, friends said that Ms Bell had dreams of giving her kids the life and opportunities they wanted.
‘She had goals of getting into medicine to help (her daughter) in her struggles and to help give her the best chance at a full life,’ an online fundraiser states.
‘She was trying her hardest with limited resources and support, trying to be the best mum she could be.’
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