I escaped the clutches of brutal dating app killer Ashley Gaddie. This is the ... trends now
A woman who escaped the clutches of dating app killer Ashley Gaddie has revealed he sent her a message asking for date on the same night he murdered a teacher.
Gaddie, 35, met Dannielle Finlay-Jones, 31, on dating app Bumble just days before he beat her to death at a home in Cranebrook, in Sydney’s west, on December 17, 2022.
He fled the scene before becoming involved in a 12-hour stand-off with police at a the top of a cliff in the Blue Mountains.
He was eventually arrested, charged with murder, and jailed while awaiting trial.
However, in April this year, he took his own life at Clarence Correctional Centre having never entered a plea or given any explanation for Ms Finlay-Jones' murder.
Daily Mail Australia can now reveal that while Gaddie was sitting at a pub with Ms Finlay-Jones just hours before he brutally killed her, he secretly texted another woman, Danni Godfrey, 31.
At 7.47pm that night he told her: 'Wish I could take you on a date.'
The text was one of many Gaddie had sent Ms Godfrey over 12 months in an attempt to persuade her to go out with him, which involved a web of lies designed to manipulate her.
Ms Godfrey said she had panic attack when she learned what Gaddie did to Ms Finlay-Jones,' telling Daily Mail Australia: 'It could have been me'.
She has deleted her dating apps and has not been romantically involved with anyone since.
Danni Godfrey (pictured) received a text from Ashley Gaddie the night he killed Dannielle Finlay-Jones
Danielle Finlay-Jones, 31, was found brutally murdered in the spare bedroom of her friend's home in December 2022
Ashley Gaddie (pictured), was on bail for assaulting a woman and had AVOs taken out on him by five women. He suicided in prison in April
Ms Godfrey said she and Gaddie grew up in the same town and had known each other as teenagers, but it wasn't until a Covid lockdown in about June 2021 that the pair started chatting on dating apps.
'We matched and became friends on social media, but he started to become creepy around that period,' she said.
Gaddie's first message to Ms Godfrey on Facebook was sent at 5.55pm on June 25, 2021. He said: 'Hi Danni, can I ask you a question?'
She replied: 'Hello, sure.'
He said: 'Do you believe in true love? Or love in our generation.'
When Ms Godfrey didn't reply, Gaddie wrote back about three hours later: 'Sorry I didn't mean anything by it.'
She replied to his initial question, saying: 'Yes I do, why do you ask?'
Gaddie then started talking about a security guard from the Philippines who said his grandchildren couldn't find love 'because of the way our generation are'.
'Since I don't speak to women and you are the only lady on my [Facebook] I thought I'd just ask the question,' he added.
Ashley Gaddie started talking to Danni Godfrey on Facebook in June 2021 (pictured)
Gaddie asked Ms Godfrey if she believed in true love, before he said his two dogs died. He didn't own any dogs
Two days later, and without a reply from Ms Godfrey, Gaddie continued: 'I wasn't trying to creep on you, I lost both my dogs and was really struggling. I won't bother you again. Sorry again.'
When Ms Godfrey showed police the messages between herself and Gaddie following the murder of Ms Finlay-Jones, officers told her he had lied to a number of women about owning dogs.
'I have a dog and I found out through police it was a tactic he used with women because he didn't own a dog,' she said.
Gaddie also told her that he had a broken leg when she uploaded a photo of her own fractured ankle on social media.
'Hopefully it's a speedy recovery. Mine was fractured for four months,' he said.
Police told Ms Godfrey that Gaddie had never broken a leg.
On August 29, Gaddie messaged her again, unprovoked, to ask how 'the Bumble dating life' was going.
When Ms Godfrey told Gaddie she was seeing someone, he said only found women who 'waste my time'
