The texts, fear and violence: how coward murderer Daniel Billings killed his former partner Molly Ticehurst

In March last year, Molly Ticehurst texted her former boyfriend Daniel Billings: “Why did you want to kill me? Why do you do all that bad stuff to me?” Billings replied: “Maybe my thought process was if I couldn’t have you then I didn’t want anyone to.” A little over three weeks later, Billings murdered Ms Ticehurst, 28, in cold blood inside her home in Forbes, in central western NSW. The case has become a flashpoint in the war against domestic violence – a fortnight before she was killed, Ms Ticehurst walked into a police station to make a sexual assault and domestic violence complaints about Billings.mo He was arrested and released on bail. While on conditional liberty, he killed Ms Ticehurst – a mother-of-one and childcare worker – by breaking into her home and stabbing her. On Friday, Billings appeared in Forbes Local Court where he pleaded guilty to her murder and is facing decades in prison when he is sentenced next year. A trove of text messages and notes Ms Ticehurst provided to police, contained in court documents, reveal his violent history, how Billings could not accept when their on-and-off relationship ended in late 2023 and how he sought revenge after she went to authorities seeking protection. “I WILL GET IN YOUR WINDOW” Billings worked as a trainee exploration driller and lived at Parkes – about a half-hour drive from Forbes – at the time he killed Ms Ticehurst. They began their relationship early 2022 and broke up in June the next year. They got back together, before breaking up for the final time in December, 2023. After they ended things, Billings packed up his belongings at Ms Ticehurst’s house and took the Dachshund puppy, which they had purchased a month earlier. Billings later admitted to slaughtering the puppy by hitting it with a hammer, and he later told police that he killed it because he had nowhere to put it. Ms Ticehurst told police that Billings had sexually assaulted, threatened her and broke a pedestal fan in early January 2024, when he again came to collect some belongings, according to a statement of agreed facts tendered to the court on Friday. She said he became aggressive and threatened her by saying: “I will get in your window and get you.” Three months later, Billings did exactly that – he broke into her home via a bedroom window in the dead of the night and stabbed her 15 times in the head and neck with a hunting knife. When Billings was arrested, he denied sexually assaulting Ms Ticehurst. The same day as that incident, Ms Ticehurst asked her father to change the locks on her home. Ms Ticehurst texted her mother the following day, making a contemporaneous complaint about the allegations, however she refused to go to police because she feared Billings would kill her. On January 4, Ms Ticehurst exchanged text messages with Billings about the events of the night before. He told her: “I’d never harm you” and “I don’t beat women.” “You must not have ever known me then if you think I’d be capable of throwing my hands at you,” Billings said, three months before he brutally killed Ms Ticehurst. He ended the conversation by saying that anyone who hit a woman was a “coward”. On 19 January, they exchanged text messages, with Billings expressing that he needed “closure” following the breakdown of their relationship. “What more do you want,” Ms Ticehurst replied. “IF I END UP DEAD, HE 100 PER CENT DID IT” On March 4, Billings and Ms Ticehurst met in the car park of the Harvey Norman at Parkes. They drove to the soccer fields and Ms Ticehurst later alleged to police that Billings sexually assaulted her in his ute. In notes she handed to police, she said that he pulled a knife from the driver’s seat console and threatened to kill her, court documents state. In notes provided to police, she said: “I truely (sic) believe he will hurt me & he will not stop contact (sic) me, I live in fear for my life … my family and my animals.” Billings was later charged with sexual intercourse without consent over the incident. However those charges have been dropped, like Billings’ other rape charges. Because Ms Ticehurst is dead, she cannot give evidence in court and prosecutors withdrew the charges on Friday. Billings, in his police interview and in messages to friends, denied any sexual assault took place. Around that time, Ms Ticehurst texted a friend: “If I end up dead, he 100 per cent did it”. “WHY DID YOU WANT TO KILL ME?” In the weeks leading up to her death, Billings texted Ms Ticehurst saying that he could not accept the end of their relationship. “Why did you want to kill me? Why do you do all that bad stuff to me?” she asked. “Maybe my thought process was if I couldn’t have you then I didn’t want anyone to,” he replied. He texted her again in early April telling her he could not accept the end of their relationship, despite her pleas to leave her alone. She confronted him by saying he had threatened her, killed her dog, threatened her family, broken her property and threatened to stab her. “I just want to be cuddled to sleep one last time,” he pleaded. In notes later provided to police, Ms Ticehurst listed threats which she had alleged Billings had made against her. She said he told her in an April 3 phone call: “I will come in the middle of the night & cut your head off”, “I will get to you if that is the last thing I do”, “The police won’t stop me, I will get to you quicker than they will” and “This isn’t over, I have only just begun”. That day, Billings called her mobile 15 times over a 12 minute period, call records show. Two days later, Ms Ticehurst walked into Forbes police station where she made domestic violence and sexual assault complaints against Billings. He was arrested that afternoon and in an interview with police, denied sexually assaulting his former partner or threatening her. He made some admissions about damaging her property, including punching the window of her car, and killing the puppy. Police took out an AVO on Ms Ticehurst’s behalf. When Billings was released on bail, she told several people that she was scared for her safety before packing up her things and moving away for a week. In mid-April, Billings told a friend that he was innocent of the sexual assault allegations and said: “If I’m going to do the time, I may as well do the crime.” Around this time, he also expressed concerns to friends about the cost of legal representation. On April 20, he went to a tobacconist in Parkes where he bought the hunting knife which he would use to kill Ms Ticehurst a day later. THE MURDER Billings murdered Ms Ticehurst just before midnight on April 21, 2024. That day Billings scrawled notes on his bail papers, claiming he was “innocent”. In what appeared to be a suicide note, he said: “Make me out to be a monster, treat me like an animal, then okay, I’m gonna play the f**king part,” he wrote. He also ranted that the “final straw” came when his Queensland team singlet was “thrown in the dirt” by police. In a video he recorded on his phone, he also made bizarre claims that his Queensland boxing singlet was “disrespected” by officers. “That singlet done me – that is when I started getting thoughts in my head,” he said. “Oh maybe just f**king drive over there. And she reckons I was going to go through the f**king window and cut her head off or something. “Maybe I might do that.” Over the course of the videos – recorded between 2.09pm and 5.52pm he apologised to the people in his life, discussed having steak for dinner and what clothes he would wear during the murder. At 10.35pm he left his home on his journey to Ms Ticehurst’s home and recorded himself singing along to the Johnny Cash song “The Man Comes Around”. At 11.27pm and 13 seconds, he was seen arriving at her home. Billings broke in via a bedroom window and stabbed Ms Ticehurst 15 times. Afterwards, he recorded another video in which he could be seen with blood on his hands, and stated: “I’ve just murdered my ex-girlfriend.” Just before 2am, he arrived at the home of two friends, drinking a can of rum. “I killed her,” he told his friends, before detailing his plans to kill himself by driving his car into a tree and stating he could not be arrested. One of the friends told him that he could not let him go and that if he wanted to get to his car, he would have to go through him. After one of his friends called triple-0, he was arrested at about 2.40am and made further admissions to police. “I was going to be called a rapist or something,” he told a Senior Constable. “Now I’m just called a murderer. “I pray to God none of you ever have to take a life or take a life. It’s not good, I can tell you. “This is not something that you want to do. I don’t even know why I did it.” Ms Ticehurst’s body was discovered by police, covered in blood and with a hammer and knife sheath beside her. Billings will appear in the NSW Supreme Court on December 12, where he will reaffirm his guilty plea and a date will be set for sentence proceedings. Domestic Violence helplines Mental health support