‘It’s a sad story’: Retired teacher’s body picked up in rubbish bins

The body of a missing retired Brisbane teacher was dumped in a wheelie bin, picked up by a rubbish truck and taken to a waste site, police believe.

Detective Superintendent Andrew Massingham said investigators had narrowed down where the body of Lesley Trotter, 78, may be, and were treating her death as suspicious.

Lesley Trotter, 78, went missing from her Toowong home on March 28.Credit: QPS

Police said they did not have a suspect.

“Ongoing investigations can reveal that on the morning of March 28 this year, the body of a female we believe was Lesley Trotter was located in a general waste wheelie bin situated on Maryvale Street, Toowong, near to where she resides.”

Massingham said the bin was picked up that morning by a rubbish truck, which went to a waste transfer station at Nudgee.

The rubbish was then dumped into a pit, Massingham explained, and an additional 22 trucks visited that site on the Tuesday.

“The loads from each of those trucks were compressed, and then taken away from that facility in six B-double semi-trailers,” he said.

“Those semi-trailers made their way to dump sites at both Rochedale and Swanbank, with Rochedale taking one truck and Swanbank taking five trucks.

“The location of that rubbish at each of those sites has now been quarantined, in fact it was quarantined over the weekend.

“We are currently planning an extensive search of both those sites to try and recover the remains of the person we believe to be Lesley Trotter.”

Massingham said police had “strong evidence” to suggest Trotter’s body would be in the areas quarantined.

He said the truck had been seized by police, but would not be drawn on whether police had viewed the truck’s camera footage.

He also would not elaborate on Trotter’s injuries but confirmed police could not rule out foul play “due to the positioning of the body”.

Massingham last week told reporters police were investigating whether Trotter’s habits of checking her neighbours had placed their recycling into the correct bin had contributed to her death.

“We can’t rule out that has something to do with her death in some way,” Massingham again said on Tuesday.

Trotter was an active hiker and bushwalker.

Police believe Trotter died between midnight on March 27 and the following morning, and were awaiting results from forensics on blood samples found near units near Trotter’s property.

When asked whether there had been attempts to access Trotter’s bank accounts, Massingham said he could not comment.

While the search of rubbish tips was not uncommon, the scale of Trotter’s case would make it “quite complex” for police, Massingham said.

“I expect once engineers finalise their ability to scale down areas of search, we will be in a position by the end of this week to commence a piece by piece of that general waste to recover her body.”

Police were continuing to intercept motorists on Maryvale Street to remind them to check their dashcam footage.

Massingham said the news was traumatic for Trotter’s family.

“I think this is confronting for them – the nature of what I’ve relayed to you would be concerning for any family, particularly a lady of that age ... who was looking forward to the next chapter of her life.

“It’s a very sad story.”