The 26-year-old's body was found with fatal stab wounds in her South Melbourne home on May 4 last year, but it's believed she died as early as five days beforehand.

The mother of one's boyfriend Ricardo Barbaro, 34, is charged with her murder and is facing a three-day hearing in Melbourne Magistrates Court.

Tracey Gangell was called to give evidence on Monday but the day had to be cut short when Ms Gangell became overwhelmed with emotion after confirming her daughter was threatening to tell police a friend raped her unless he gave her money.

Defence barrister Mark Gumbleton had questioned her on Ms Price's job, asking her mother to confirm that her dancing job was "exotic dancing" and "adult entertainment" before grilling her on how much time her son spent in childcare.

He also questioned Ms Gangell on whether Ms Price drove luxury cars and how she paid for a "penthouse" apartment, which was actually on the middle level of a three-storey complex.

Ms Gangell began sobbing when Mr Gumbleton began asking her about an alleged extortion plot between Ms Price and a man she had been accepting large sums of money from.

She said she understood the man in his 50s and her daughter were "just really good friends", but said the man had sent her a text saying he wanted nothing to do with Ms Price anymore in a period shortly before she died.

Ms Gangell confirmed Ms Price wanted money from the man to upgrade her car and accommodation, and that she'd said she would go to the police and claim that he had raped her if he didn't pay up.

She said she was surprised that Ms Price would do anything like that.

"I did try and speak to her about it once and I will never forget the look on her face when I asked her about it," she said.

Ms Gangell said she was "going mad at her" about what was going on when Barbaro had popped onto the screen and told Ms Price to "tell your mum what you did".

"She had no words. She couldn't say anything. The look on her face - I knew she had some fear in her eyes and I just didn't ask her any more about it," she said.

"I still see her face on the phone, the way she looked, and I just stopped because I knew straight away there was something just wasn't right."

Ms Gangell broke down in tears and the magistrate ordered the hearing be adjourned until Tuesday to give her the chance to compose herself.

Barbaro's defence is that it was another person who murdered Ms Price.

Ms Price's sister Danielle is expected to give evidence on Tuesday.

Australian Associated Press