Family and friends of a “beautiful” mother murdered after refusing to reconcile with her estranged partner, have faced the man responsible to say she was “too good for him”.

Fighting tears in the witness box at the Victorian, Australia Supreme Court on Friday, Elaine Pandilovski was remembered as a loving and caring person who never had a bad word to say.

“I am haunted by visions of my best friend’s last moments alive and how terrified she must have been,” her best friend, Carol, said.

“She was such a beautiful person and her family has been robbed of her … this is not how she deserves to be remembered.”

The 44-year-old was strangled to death at her Mill Park home, in Melbourne Australias’s northeast, on July 14, 2020, by her long-term partner Zoran Pandilovski, 48.

Pandilovski had been due to face trial in April but pleaded guilty to the murder minutes before it was supposed to start after prosecutors rejected his offer of a plea on a lesser charge of manslaughter.

The court heard the couple were childhood sweethearts who began dating in high school and married in 2002.

About 20 months before the murder, however, Pandilovski had been kicked out of the family home due to domestic violence.

They remained in contact, mostly about their young son, and in early 2020 Pandilovski spoke to his wife about his hopes to reconcile.

Mrs. Pandilovski said she did not feel the same way.

At 7:45 am, the morning of her murder, Pandilovski was captured on CCTV arriving at the family home, where he was supposed to pick up their son’s iPad for repairs.

He left about two hours later and was injured in a “head-on” high-speed car crash along Melbourne’s Western Ring Rd.

Prosecutor Neil Hutton told the court the alarm was raised when Mrs. Pandilovski failed to arrive at the school where she worked as a teacher’s aid.

Her mother attended the family home at about 3:10 pm after receiving a phone call from a concerned colleague but was unable to find her daughter.

Her remains were discovered hidden in a storage room off the basement after 9 pm the same night when police were called.

Pandilovski was taken into custody the following day after he was released from hospital.

Photos of his wife’s body were discovered on his phone.

Hutton told the court Mrs. Pandilovski died from compression of the neck after an attack lasting “ten’s of seconds or potentially longer” in the lounge room.

“It’s a slow and deliberate effort … it gives the person time to reflect on their actions,” he said.

“After the accused killed her he took her body to the basement in an effort to conceal his crime.”

Pandilovski’s lawyer, David Hallows SC, told the court the devastating consequences felt by Mrs. Pandilovski’s loved ones were “solely attributable” to his client.

He said Pandilovski had not planned to murder his wife, but he “lost control” as the couple argued.

“He went there to pick up the iPad … something happens and he loses control and commits this despicable crime,” he said.

His client, he said, had explained the reason he moved the body was to avoid the prospect of their son finding it when he returned home.

Hallowes told the court the reason why his client took photos of Mrs. Pandilovski’s body was “inexplicable,” arguing it should not be seen as a “trophy photo.”

He conceded the history of domestic violence, which had gotten worse prior to him being kicked out of the family home, resulted in him not being able to say this was “out of the blue”.

He told the court his client had done counseling, including anger management sessions, after the breakdown of their marriage.

“He was taking steps to try and improve himself and the way he and Elaine Pandilovski were getting along,” he said.

Justice Christopher Beale will hand down a sentence on August 11.