The Truth About Amy - Episode 4: Amy Wensley’s friends recall violence at hands of her partner David Simmons

Two days before Amy Wensley was found dead from a gunshot wound her friends and family believe was not self-inflicted, the mum-of-two found a path to freedom.

Initially ruled a suicide by WA Police, Amy’s death in 2014 inside the Serpentine home she shared with her partner David Simmons and their two daughters is being re-investigated in Seven’s powerful new podcast ‘The Truth About Amy’.

At an inquest into Amy’s death in 2021, police admitted that arrogance, inexperience and ego had led to them ruling her death was suicide. Amy’s family and friends are finally hoping and pushing for the truth.

The latest episode details a car crash Amy and Simmons were in before she died.

Simmons was behind the wheel when they crashed, which left Amy with a fractured vertebrae, and in a halo brace.

Simmons claimed it was pure accident, a slide on a gravel road into a tree. He also claimed he was not intoxicated in any way.

Amy initially did not pursue accident compensation, because authorities would have chased Simmons for the debt as he was driving.

But eventually, she told the Insurance Commission of WA she would go ahead with the claim after all — two days before her death.

Close friends of Amy said the insurance claim was part of a plan to leave Simmons for good.

“She was excited … and she was ready to get the girls out,” her friend Erin Gower said.

“She’d started looking for rentals. She wanted to get a little place for her and the girls. She wanted to go and work. She had everything planned out and she was ready to go.”

Ms Gower does not believe Amy would have committed suicide.

“She had many reasons to live. She was happy. She had a goal and she was excited for that to come through,” Ms Gower says.

“Two days later was her daughter’s birthday, she had the presents in the car. She didn’t speak of suicide.

“She loved her daughters. It doesn’t make sense.”

Ms Gower and her other close friend Natasha Celcer revealed to The West the full extent of violence and control she was subjected to by her partner before her death.

Both of their eye-witness accounts describe a man who displayed controlling jealousy, substance abuse and physical coercion.

And a photograph of Amy taken in 2012 displaying clear and recent bruising on her neck back up her friend’s claims of abuse.

“David was very demanding or controlling. He had to have his say in everything, and Amy wasn’t really allowed to work. But prior to him, she had multiple jobs,” Ms Gower said.

“She didn’t really have much say in anything. He was the dominant in the relationship.

“I saw the verbal abuse. The first time that I got really worried was he made jokes about if he was ever to do anything to her — if he was ever to kill Amy — he had options of what he could do with her body.

All I saw was David with his hands around Amy’s neck

“He’d been drinking all day, and this was the first time that I ever was like: ‘This person’s a little bit unhinged.’

“He made it seem like he was joking, but I certainly don’t think that’s something you joke about.”

Despite the warning signs, Ms Gower said Amy was desperate to make it work, having had her second daughter with Simmons in 2010.

It was during that pregnancy that Ms Celcer says she saw his demeanour change.

“He was very jealous. Very much: ‘I’m going to do what I want to do. I’m going to go out. I’m going to go see the boys. I’ll be home when I get home. You just stay here’,” she says.

Amy was nine months pregnant when Simmons came home after one of these outings with his friends. Ms Celcer remembers clearly what happened next.

“He came home, was very volatile. So it started, he was intoxicated, been drinking. Amy started saying to him: ‘This isn’t on. I’m pregnant’.

“They were fighting in the kitchen and I turned to walk out of the lounge room back through the kitchen, and all I saw was David with his hands around Amy’s neck, bent over her back, pushed up against the table with his hands around her neck.

“And I remember saying to him: ‘That’s not okay. You can’t do that ... What is wrong with you?”

Anyone with information can email thetruthaboutamy@seven.com.au or leave an anonymous tip at www.thetruthaboutamy.org