Editing Megan Haines (section)

==Legal process==
After an investigation which included surveillance of Haines's phone calls<ref name=SMHknew/> the killer was arrested by plain clothes officers in an unmarked car on July 7; she did not resist and walked willingly to the car.<ref>[https://www.northernstar.com.au/videos/police-footage-arrest-megan-haines/23067/ Police footage of the arrest of Megan Haines], ''The Northern Star'', July 2014</ref> At that time she was in Seaspray, Victoria and local police arrested her, with a court hearing at Melbourne's Magistrates Court the following day beginning the extradition process back to New South Wales.<ref name=StarAppears>[https://www.northernstar.com.au/news/woman-arrested-over-ballina-nursing-home-murders/2311557/ Former nurse appears in court over nursing home deaths] - Rebecca Lollback, "rstevens<sup>[sic]</sup>" and Marnie Johnston writing for ''The Northern Star'', July 2014</ref> Magistrate Duncan Reynolds ordered her extradited and to receive treatment for depression.<ref name=StarAppears/> Joanne Findley, representing Haines, said the depression was severe and this combined with Haines never being detained before made her client vulnerable.<ref name=SMHallegedly/>

At a hearing before the New South Wales Supreme Court in April 2015 Haines argued the circumstantial nature of the evidence against her amounted to a weak case which made her ongoing pretrial detention unlawful.<ref name=ABCbail/> Justice Geoffrey Bellew disagreed, ruling the case may be circumstantial but was not weak, and ordered her to remain locked up.<ref name=ABCbail/> In May 2016 she was arraigned on two counts of murder at the New South Wales Supreme Court in Sydney and committed for trial after pleading not guilty.<ref name=SCDLismore/>

Haines was 46 when arrested.<ref name=StarAppears/> By the time her 2½-week trial in October and November 2016<ref name=SMHjailed/><ref name=SMHknew/> was over she was 49 at the time of her December 2016 sentencing.<ref name=ABCsentence/>