Daniel Rowsell, a former Australian and Pan-Asian cruiserweight champion, told the Courier-Mail he approached the 24-year-old outside the Queensland Hotel in Goondiwindi on the night of March 16 in the hope of chatting her up.
“I said ‘I’ll give you a lift home’ but she said ‘I’ll be right I’m only a couple of kays [kilometres] home’,” Mr Rowsell, 41, was quoted as saying.
The ex-boxer said he warned Ms Jeffery, who had been drinking with friends, that the streets were not safe.
He said he took a group of men to a nearby party before returning 10 to 15 minutes later and again asking if the mother-of-three wanted a lift.
He said she was sitting on stairs at a bank with another man, who has since been identified as 33-year-old farm labourer Robert Trebeck.
“I was being a bit arrogant and pulled $20 from my pocket and dropped it in her lap and said ‘here get a cab’,” Mr Rowsell said.
Mr Trebeck reportedly walked back over to Mr Rowsell’s car and explained that he had been courting Ms Jeffery on Facebook in recent weeks.
“Mate, she’s really hard to get,” Mr Trebeck reportedly said.
Mr Rowsell said he then saw Ms Jeffery walking down the street by herself.
The last thing he saw was Mr Trebeck catching up with her and holding her hand as they continued walking down the street together and across to a park about 2.15am.
CCTV footage from a nearby hotel also shows Mr Trebeck and Ms Jeffery walking hand-in-hand.
Hours later Ms Jeffery’s partially-clothed body was found on a riverbank at the Queensland-NSW border.
Mr Trebeck is not considered a suspect.
He has previously said Ms Jeffery was “happy” when he last saw her and that she declined his offer to walk her home.
He said he walked home to his girlfriend in a route opposite to that of Ms Jeffery and that “nothing was going on” between him and the mother-of-three.
“He’s given us a version of events which can’t be corroborated or uncorroborated,” Acting Superintendent Dave Isherwood said of Mr Trebeck two months ago.
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