The day after her ex-partner’s body was put into a woodchipper, murder-accused Sharon Graham discussed his will over coffee before sleeping in his bed with another man, a court has been told.
The 62-year-old is accused of being the “architect“ of an alleged plan to murder Bruce Saunders at a rural property in Queensland’s Sunshine Coast hinterland.
Mr Saunders was hit on the head with an iron bar after sunset on 12 November 2017 and his body fed into an industrial woodchipper to make it look like an accident, the Brisbane Supreme Court trial has been told.
The Crown alleges Graham asked her then partner Greg Roser and Peter Koenig to kill Mr Saunders, who died while the men cleared vegetation on a friend’s property.
On the night Mr Saunders died Graham was hysterical on the phone, her daughter Rebecca Graham said on Thursday 12 October.
She was incomprehensible and not making much sense while referring to an accident, Ms Graham told the court.
The next morning at the house Graham had been sharing with Mr Saunders she brought out his will as they had coffee, Ms Graham said.
Her mother was no longer hysterical or vague but was calm, she told the court.
Ms Graham said her mother had moved out of the main bedroom before Mr Saunders died but slept there with Roser from the following night.
Koenig was extremely quiet the day after the death, but Roser was vocal about being annoyed at Mr Saunders’ behaviour around the woodchipper, Ms Graham said, testifying by phone.
“He was trying to say that Bruce was extremely reckless around the machine.“
Koenig has told jurors he was walking at the front of the trio when he felt Mr Saunders brush against his arm and turned to see him lying face-up on the ground.
“Greg was standing over him with a steel bar … above his shoulder,“ he told the court.
“He clubbed him on the head again and again.“
Asked what he had done next, Koenig replied: “I said ’what the f*** have you done?’ Or similar. Greg said ’I’ve killed him’.“
Koenig said he grabbed Mr Saunders’ legs and helped Roser carry the lifeless man to the woodchipper.
“I placed Bruce on the tray of the chipper and used a stick to put his arm into the rollers to take him in,“ Koenig told the court.
Koenig said he had met Graham years ago in South Australia and had infrequent sexual contact with her while working for her partner as a truck driver and had followed the couple when they moved to the Gympie region.
He told the court Graham told them she wanted Mr Saunders killed for his life insurance.
Graham’s barrister Peter Richards put it to Koenig his client had never talked about killing Mr Saunders.
A central issue in the trial would be the credibility and reliability of Koenig, he said earlier.
The trial continues.
