When a triple zero operator asked Robert Bretherton if he knew who his girlfriend's killer was, he replied, "Yeah, me".
Two years later, Bretherton, 38, month found guilty of murdering Jodie Jurd by stabbing her a dozen times in their Hunter Valley home in November 2011.
Sentencing him to at least 15 years and nine months' jail, Justice Ian Harrison said at Newcastle's Supreme Court on Thursday that it might never be known what led to the violent attack.
The two-week trial heard Bretherton was "obsessed" with and intensely jealous of Ms Jurd's close relationship with her family and that he used to take the SIM card out of her phone and prevent her from visiting them.
After a decade of splitting up and reconciling, their relationship had once again deteriorated in November 2011 when, during an argument about finances, Bretherton stabbed Ms Jurd 12 times in the back, torso and cheek with a kitchen knife.
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A neighbour who heard Ms Jurd "screaming hysterically" immediately called triple zero, as did Bretherton.
When police arrived, they found Ms Jurd lying in a pool of blood, with Bretherton kneeling over her.
He pleaded guilty to manslaughter but this was not accepted by the Crown.
Handing down a maximum 21-year sentence, Justice Harrison found Bretherton was substantially impaired at the time of the murder as a result of his depression and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.
"It is difficult, if not impossible, to know precisely or even generally what it was that precipitated (Bretherton's) violent and fatal attack upon (Ms Jurd)," Justice Harrison said, adding it most likely would not have happened but for Bretherton's mental condition.
Although Bretherton had accepted responsibility for his actions, the judge could not be satisfied that he had shown any remorse at all.
He extended his condolences to the Ms Jurd's family, to whom her death was "a terrible and unending fact of life".
Taking into account time already served, Bretherton will be eligible for parole in August 2027.
