The body of the 26-year-old was found with fatal stab wounds in her South Melbourne home on May 4 last year, but it's believed she might have died as early as April 28.

Boyfriend Ricardo Barbaro, 34, is charged with her murder and is facing court in Melbourne.

On Tuesday Ms Price's mother Tracey Gangell said she only met Barbaro once, in February 2020, after the couple had taken a trip to Cairns and Port Douglas.

She said Ms Price told her that during that Queensland trip - on Valentines Day - Barbaro had choked her.

"She thought he was going to kill her. She thought she was going to die," she told Melbourne Magistrates Court.

Ms Gangell said Barbaro had also called her after the incident, asking her to "speak to your daughter" about what had happened, but said she never asked him about the allegation.

"I didn't want to ask him and then him turn around and say 'why did you tell your mum that' or something like that and go off at her," she said.

"I was more concerned for her safety."

Ms Gangell said her daughter told her that in an earlier, separate, incident Barbaro had forced her head into a car dashboard, causing a split above her eye that needed stitches.

Ms Price had gone to police but Ms Gangell said she also spoke about withdrawing her complaint over claims Barbaro had threatened herself and her family.

Ms Gangell said she tried to encourage Ms Price to end her relationship with Barbaro, but her daughter had felt sorry for him.

"He was going to see someone about his anger. He told her, I guess, that he was going to change," she said.

"And that's when I said leopards don't change their spots."

Barbaro's lawyers say Ms Price was still alive when he saw her last and another person killed her.

The court heard Ms Price worked as a dancer in Melbourne after returning from Tasmania following the birth of her son.

"She didn't want to sit around on Centrelink," her sister Danielle Cross said.

"She wanted to earn her money and potentially buy a house."

A crime scene investigator who attended Ms Price's home after her death said she found glue-on fingernails in the garage and on the floor near Ms Price's body.

Senior Constable Heather Robinson noted two round holes in the wall in the master bedroom may have been caused during an assault.

Light coloured hairs were found in plaster remnants on the floor below, she said.

She told the court she had looked around the apartment for a knife that may have caused Ms Price's stab wounds, but nothing was seized.

The hearing is set to continue on Wednesday.

Australian Associated Press