Police allege Tia Landers was tortured with knives and sword before being shot

POLICE allege this woman was tortured with knives, machetes and a sword before being shot twice - and the horror didn’t end there.

TIA Landers’ life ended in agony as she was tortured with knives, machetes and a sword – then shot twice before a plastic bag was wrapped around her head, police will allege.

The mother-of-four’s harrowing final moments were witnessed by two male friends, who were forced at knife and gunpoint to watch her ordeal then ordered to wrap her body and clean up the blood.

The gruesome murder was carried out by a couple who interrupted the brutal torture session to inject themselves with drugs, police will allege.

John Edward Harris, 42, and Linda Eileen Appleton, 41, were remanded in custody yesterday, charged with a crime that has shocked even seasoned detectives.

WANT TO BE WILD: Who was Tia Landers?

Ms Landers’ body – dumped in state forest near the Glass House Mountains last month – bears disturbing signs of violence.

Investigators allege it was Harris who put two bullets into the victim after she had suffered cleaving blows to her thighs from the sword and was dragged into a shower.

Ms Lander’s sister Jamie, 19, said she wanted answers about what happened to Tia.

“I’m still not believing it and the fact that we don’t get to say a goodbye, we can’t see the body, we can’t pay our respects, we just have to accept what we’ve been told – she’s gone,” she said.

“It still hasn’t sunk in … it’s a bad nightmare. Your sister doesn’t just get murdered by people – that only happens in movies.”

Friend Angela Dicker said Ms Landers had “four beautiful kids who now have to grow up with no mother and no father figure”.

“She was a really strong, driven woman who just got caught up with the wrong people,” she said.

The 28-year-old knew her alleged killers and was a repeat visitor to their ­ramshackle Brighton home where police say she met her end.

When police attended the property in late May, Ms Landers, a visitor at the time, allegedly fled and tried to take refuge with a neighbour.

She was due to testify in a court case next month as a witness for her former lover, jailed armed robber Wade Bartz.

Bartz stands accused of threatening violence – while brandishing a shotgun – against someone with whom Ms Landers had been embroiled in a shouting match earlier this year.

He is not suspected of any involvement in his lover’s death.

Last month, police received reports the Brighton house was the target of an unrelated drive-by shooting.

The house was taped off as a crime scene during the week leading up to the discovery of Ms Landers’ remains in bushland north of Roys Rd, Beerburrum, on Thursday.

The case against Harris and Appleton was adjourned in the Redcliffe Magistrates Court yesterday until January 16 next year.

Ms Landers was first reported missing on June 16.