She said the pair were on horses and she also had her dog with her when they spotted "an item" on the verge of the road.

"An item was seen on the side of the road ... it seemed to be an unusual thing to see on the side of the road," she said.

"I can't remember whether [Mr Daventhoren] picked it up ... I can't really remember what happened to it, I'm not sure.

"My feeling is that it may have been on Mortimer Road, I can't say with 100 per cent certainty that it was."

She said she was asked 20 years later about the item being a knife and said she had a vague recollection of it.

"I couldn't remember exactly because I hadn't thought about it in so long," she said.

Mr Hollingsworth is now asking Ms Bell about an event that occurred a short time later on their ride, while they were travelling along Woolcoot Road.

"As we were riding ... we saw a woman standing ... yelling something out, it sounded like she was saying, 'Don't come down, don't come down here',"she said.

"I got off the horse ... and held the dog because at first I thought maybe there was a snake.

"Stephen rode down towards the woman.

"When I got closer ... and I heard her say she'd found a body. She said she went into the bushes to pick some Arum lillies and she saw a foot.

"[Stephen] walked into the bush to see what was there."

Ms Bell said she did not look at the body, but described the area it was in as being about four or five metres off the road.

"I would describe it as vegetation that was dense, so if there was something lying in it you wouldn't see it from the road," she said.

Mr Hollingsworth is asking what Ms Bell did next.

"The lady that was there, she had informed me that her husband had gone down to the riding school to look for somebody to call the police and that she intended to remain there," she said.

"She didn't want to leave her alone, referring to the deceased.

"I said I'd stay there as well."

Ms Bell has become emotional recalling staying with the body.

Mr Hollingsworth: And did you stay there?

Ms Bell: (whispers) Yes.

Ms Bell said she jogged around the area often, but had not noticed anything unusual prior to the body being found.