From time to time, the prostitute would tell her friends in Port Kembla that she had been out to a rehabilitation centre at Robertson.

This is the Triple Care Farm youth rehabilitation centre, set on the scenic Illawarra escarpment.

On October 30, 2003, the 27-year-old's badly decomposed body was found wrapped in a quilt and dumped in bushland on the farm.

She had been stabbed twice in the chest, twice in her abdomen and once in the back.

Her body was so badly decomposed that police could not determine if she had suffered any other injuries before she died and her time of death was set at anywhere between two months and a year before she was found.

In the eight months between the last confirmed sighting of Ms Scott and the grisly find by teenagers living at the farm, police were inundated with false leads and accused of not doing enough to find Ms Scott because she was an Aboriginal prostitute.

At one stage police had multiple persons of interest to investigate but their information was received from people making vindictive allegations.

There was a perception among the Port Kembla community that police were not acting fast enough and some took matters into their own hands, brutally assaulting a man alleged to have information about Ms Scott.

Ms Scott's mother, Josephine Krause, demanded answers in the 41/2 years between her daughter's body being found and an inquest into the circumstances of her death held this week at Albion Park Courthouse.

Again, Ms Krause blamed her daughter's Aboriginal heritage and profession for the perceived lack of action.

Ms Krause had reported her daughter missing on March 24, 2003, one day after police had received a report that she had been killed.

Ms Krause had come from Merriwagga, near Griffith, to find Ms Scott.

The last time she'd spoken to her, Ms Scott had asked her mother to come to Port Kembla and help her get her two children back.

"Maria and I had a disagreement over the drugs," Ms Krause said.

"Mainly for her own safety.

"She said 'Will you help me get my children back?' and I said: 'If you get off the drugs, I will'.

"And I would have."

Ms Krause said she regretted not looking for her daughter sooner.

Very soon after Ms Scott was reported missing, rumours began circulating in Port Kembla as to what had happened to her.

Police were flooded with rumours and theories, some bizarre and often inconsistent.

Police initially had 29 persons of interest to investigate and Deputy State Coroner Paul MacMahon said this week many allegations were made against third parties out of malice and jealousy.

Ms Scott's former de facto partner and the father of one of her two children, Jason Maher, was investigated as Ms Scott had contact with him not long before she disappeared. She had won some money on poker machines, but it seemed the more people who heard about her win, the bigger the prize money became, rising from $1700 to about $5000.

There was evidence Ms Scott had given Maher some of her winnings and Ms Krause's barrister Jane Healey suggested to the coroner that Ms Scott and Maher had argued about that money.

In his findings Mr MacMahon said: "Jason Maher was a violent person and had engaged in acts of violence towards Ms Scott."

Ms Healey had told the inquest a statement made to police suggested Ms Scott had died at one of Maher's relatives' homes when Maher hit her too hard during an argument.

Police and Mr MacMahon eliminated this theory as there was no way to connect Maher with Triple Care Farm. Another statement to police alleged Ms Scott had been killed in the back of a Port Kembla sex shop.

In July 2003, Geoffrey Maher jnr was one of a group of men who kidnapped and brutally interrogated a man who they alleged had information about the whereabouts of Ms Scott. The men believed the potential suspect had Ms Scott's handbag.

When Ms Scott's body was discovered in October, police focused their attention on staff and residents at Triple Care Farm.

Her body was found about 50m from Waratah Lodge. Ms Scott's blood was found on the wall near a light switch in the cottage and evidence of larger pools of blood were found, but because it had been cleaned, the blood could not positively be identified as that of Ms Scott.

When she disappeared, Mark Brown was the only person living in Waratah Lodge.

His former girlfriend, former co-workers and others who knew him gave evidence at the inquest that he was a private person who kept to himself and did not like to talk about his troubled past.

Ex-girlfriend Paula Black told the inquest Brown assaulted her on two occasions - headbutting her on one occasion and repeatedly hitting her on another.

She showed the court a dent on her forehead caused by Brown headbutting her.

Mr MacMahon described Brown's attacks on Ms Black as vicious and prolonged.

"The observable injury Ms Black still carries is a testament to the ferocity of his attack on her," he said.

It seemed common knowledge among Triple Care Farm staff that Brown smoked marijuana and his colleague John Stuart said Brown cultivated plants in the bush not far from where Ms Scott's body was found.

Ms Healey asked the coroner to make a recommendation about Triple Care Farm which bans the use of drugs by residents and staff.

The coroner refused to make any recommendation as its barrister Steven Woods argued the farm had not been prepared to fight any claims about its drug policy during the inquest.

Mission Australia owns the farm and its state director, Leonie Green said she was not in a position to comment on Brown and his drug use.

She said the farm had a zero tolerance drugs policy and she did not want the inquest to overshadow the farm's good work.

When Mr Stuart heard about Ms Scott's body being found on the farm, he immediately contacted police.

"I thought maybe Mark had something to do with it," he said.

Mr Stuart said Brown was known to regularly use the services of Port Kembla prostitutes.

Mr MacMahon found on Thursday that Brown killed Ms Scott on or about March 2, 2003. Brown was on stress leave and he was still living at the farm but he did not have work duties to occupy his time.

His doctor cleared him to return to work on March 25, but within days he resigned and moved to Brisbane. He returned to Robertson but on June 4 he killed himself at Carrington Falls, just a few minutes drive from where Ms Scott's body was found, in her little piece of heaven.