The 6pm news had just told the town one of their women had been charged with murder. So too had her friend, an Englishman.

"Play some sad song for Sara," a local shouted across Jonson Street to the player.

A lot of people know Sara Connor, 45. She is the woman who has the pasta-making business in town and two little boys at Byron Bay Primary School.

Few know her friend, David Taylor, 35. But many heard him on the local radio station, BayFM 99.9, through his Thursday night show First Bass, a program of "phat funky fresh beats and some booty bouncing breaks".

Until the killing in Bali, hardly anyone around town even knew they were an item.

Perhaps the only hint surfaced on August 3, when Taylor interrupted his usual stream of consciousness thoughts on dub music to post a coy Facebook reference to her business, Byron Bay Fresh Pasta, with just five words: "Perfect dinner made with love!"

Now the world has descended on the two lovers.

Bali and Byron are paradises found and sometimes lost. The 2002 bombing, the hangings, Schapelle Corby, schoolies week, shark attacks, Bali and Byron just seem to drive the media into frenzy.

The internet trolls have started. 60 Minutes, the acme of chequebook journalism, is trawling Byron Bay for friends of Connor and Taylor.

Depending on the court outcome, this is a story that will run and run. Australians could be following it for years. As the story erupted on Saturday, a Byron Bay marketing consultant Sarah Mulvin moved in to handle the story, she said "on behalf the family and the local community".

"The accusations laid against her are totally out of character for this beautiful person," a statement issued by Mulvin said.

"All of Byron unite in harmony and wish the world to know that Sara is one of the most generous, fun, honest and loved women in the Byron Bay community. She is incredibly inclusive of everyone, making sure anyone in her company feels nurtured and cared for. She has a huge heart. Her love for her boys is the biggest love in her life. She is very passionate about life and exudes enthusiasm wherever she goes."

Sara Connor moved into the Byron area with her new husband after they met roving the world in the late 1990s.

Twig Connor, a knockabout surfer dog cum barman/ manager from the Tweed Coast, had long dropped his Christian name Anthony, - preferring to answer to the nickname bestowed upon him by surf mates during his early teen years – when he met Sara Pistidda.

She had left northern Italy and headed for London where she shared a house with Connor. They poured beer at various pubs and clubs and ended up working together at the Southside Bar, a DJ nightclub/bar in Covent Garden. He managed, she collected glasses.

A Swedish-born friend, now residing north of Byron, lived with the couple in London.

"Sarah is my surrogate big sister," she says. "I've never met anyone so kind, so gentle, all she wants to do is mother everybody. It's inconceivable what's happened," she says.

Twig Connor and Sara Pistidda married in London and he took her home to northern NSW. They moved into an idyllic farmhouse secreted in the cane fields besides the Clarence River outside Yamba. They married there.

Two boys, Noah and Eli, arrived. The family moved to Berlin for a year or so and then returned to Australia, moving into a house on the northern outskirts of Byron Bay.

In 2013 Sara Connor got a half arm tattoo and a job as a cleaner at the nearby Arts Factory Backpackers Lodge. Older, better organised and overflowing with personal warmth, management saw her value and put her on the front desk.

But the marriage had started to sour and she moved out to a house nearer the backpackers lodge.

But with the two boys at school, coupled with the cost of living in Byron, Sara Connor in 2014 thought up a way of making money on the side: she returned to the old marital home so she could start a pasta -making business in the twin-door garage supplying local restaurants and food outlets.

"Pasta was her passion and her heritage," a fellow worker said.

She quickly became a leading member of Byron's happy tribe of workers who service the tourist trade but still manage to live the life laid back. And in the Byron way of kindness, she sometimes offered a spare room or tent space to backpackers she took a shine too.

A couple of dub music dudes moved in and she started to hang with the crew who play reggae at the Beach Hotel every Monday.

David Taylor was born in Halifax, England, in 1982; He has travelled the world for the last 15 years, working as a disc jockey under the name DJ Nuts. After temporary visits, he settled in Byron By in 2014.

His last program on BayFM was on July 22. He reportedly left Australia because his visa had expired, or was about to.

Sara Connor followed Taylor to Bali. Her sons were left in the care of Twig Connor.