Jury in Charlise Mutten alleged murder trial hear how the schoolgirl’s body was found in barrel

The jury in the trial of schoolgirl Charlise Mutten’s alleged murder have heard the way her body was found in the barrel. Warning: Graphic content.

Charlise Mutten was shot in the cheek, her body bound and put into a barrel that was then filled with sand and dumped down an embankment, a jury has been told.

The jury in Justin Stein’s NSW Supreme Court trial heard the horrific details of how the schoolgirl’s body was found by police four days after she was reported missing in January 2022.

The 33-year-old has pleaded not guilty to murder but has admitted to disposing of the schoolgirl’s body.

He is accused of murdering Charlise, who was the daughter of his former partner Kallista Mutten, at a property owned by his parents before dumping her body, which was concealed in a plastic barrel, near the Colo River area.

The girl was visiting her mother and Mr Stein during the school holidays, and spent her time in NSW split between Mr Stein’s family property at Mount Wilson, where she was allegedly shot and killed, and at a caravan park named the Riviera Ski Gardens in Lower Portland, about 1.5 hours away.

The jury heard the barrel with Charlise’s body was found on January 18, 2022, after police went to the location after going through Mr Stein’s phone.

Senior Constable Graham Gray told the court the barrel was opened to find it was three-quarters filled with “light coloured sand”.

The girl’s body was found with two gunshot wounds in a barrel.

“Another officer used her hand to move the sand from one side to the other and located what appeared to be human remains,” he told the court on Wednesday.

Former NSW Police crime scene officer Mitchell James told the jury Charlise’s body was head down in the barrel in the foetal position.

She was “bound” in a number of bloodstained wrappings and black garbage bags, the court heard.

A black plastic bag was also found in the barrel containing vegetation and soil, which had apparent blood staining, Mr James told the court.

“The body was found in a decomposed state ... a regular bullet wound was into her right cheek ... it struck and dislodged a tooth,” Mr James said.

The gunshot had travelled into her head and was lodged into the skull, with lead bullet fragments recovered from her head, the jury was told.

Mr James told the court she also had a gunshot wound on her lower left back near the hip area.

The second bullet at perforated the pelvic bone, he told the jury.

Charlise Mutten disappeared from the Mount Wilson property, named Wildenstein. Picture: 9 News

DIGGING FOR TREASURE

Tony Hutt, a neighbour of the Mount Wilson property, took to the witness stand on Wednesday afternoon where he told the jury he had met Charlise.

He had attended a dinner at the Stein’s house while Charlise was visiting and experienced Ms Mutten’s relationship with her daughter.

Asked how he would describe their relationship, he said it was “exceptional”.

He also told the court of a “strange” encounter with Mr Stein, when he was walking through the bushland at the back of their properties in December 2021.

Mr Hutt told the jury he was walking through the bush looking for stones when his dog ran up ahead of him.

After following the dog, Mr Hutt told the jury he found Mr Stein lying face down in a “culvert” or dip in the ground.

“I observed he was trying to hide from me but I couldn’t say that for sure ... the way he was lying down,” Mr Hutt said.

Mr Hutt said he asked what Mr Stein was doing, to which he replied: “Digging for treasure.”

He told the jury he saw a “spade or shovel” as well as a “bag or a case” but couldn’t categorically say.

Justin Stein is accused of killing Charlise Mutten.

“He said ‘please don’t tell anyone’ ... I agreed to it because I thought it was weird but I didn’t think it was dangerous,” Mr Hutt said.

The jury previously heard police found items buried in the vicinity of that same area, which had been stolen from a nearby Mount Wilson property by Ms Mutten and Mr Stein in August 2021.

“MUMMY, NO”

Mr Stein’s lawyers allege it was Ms Mutten who shot and killed her daughter on the evening of January 12, 2022.

In calls played to the jury while Mr Stein was in prison in the weeks following the alleged murder, he can be heard telling his mother Ms Mutten was responsible for shooting the nine-year-old.

“Behind the shed on the fire break … I’m guessing she ran down to me to the shed because the last thing she screamed was my name and then you heard ‘Mummy no’ and then the second gunshot,” Mr Stein said in one the calls.

On Wednesday Carolyn Davenport SC, representing Mr Stein, told the court Ms Mutten drove off with Mr Stein’s car twice in the early hours of January 13, 2022.

The jury previously heard Ms Mutten had gone to a nearby campground to “pray” for her daughter and sent text messages “consistent with someone who” had a missing child.

Under cross-examination of Detective Sergeant Bradley Gardiner, Ms Davenport asked whether Ms Mutten was tracked when she left with Mr Stein’s car the second time that morning.

She asked: “There’s no tracking of her phone after she left the property the second time?”

“No, that’s correct,” Det Sgt Gardiner said.

Mr Stein claims Kallista Mutten (pictured) killed her daughter. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Ms Davenport confirmed: “There’s no tracking of where she went between 9am and 10.30am on January 13.”

Det Sgt Gardiner told the court Ms Mutten had told police where she went.

“There’s no evidence to show us where she went,” Ms Davenport asked.

The officer-in-charge responded: “No.”

Ms Davenport then asked if there was any evidence to show Mr Stein drove to the location where the firearms were found on a fire trail near the Mount Wilson property.

Again, Det Sgt Gardiner said there was no evidence.

MUM’S METH BINGE

The jury on Wednesday heard how Charlise’s mother had a meth addiction from the age of 17, and was admitted to Katoomba Hospital in March 2021 after she was found “incoherent” in the street.

Case notes from her admission into hospital were read to the court, which revealed she was found “sitting in the middle of the reoad, rocking, repeating sentences, shaking, shivering and with no shoes”.

The jury heard Ms Mutten was repeatedly saying: “I want to leave ... my children come first, I want to go to hospital, me, my children, my family ... Did I hurt anyone?”

Ms Mutten had been released from the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney just four days earlier.

Det Sgt Gardiner told the court she had been taking 16 to 17 points of methamphetamine daily since her release, conceding it was a high amount.

The jury heard Ms Mutten had admitted to self-harming and suicidal ideation, with her case notes saying she had “hypersensitivity” to personal conflict.

She told workers at RPA hospital she hurt herself to try to stop her boyfriend leaving the relationship and “it tends to work”.

Ms Mutten conceded it was a “form of manipulation” but the “paranoia” lasts for days, the jury heard from the case notes.

Justin Stein allegedly drove around Sydney with Charlise’s body in the back of his ute. Picture: NSW Police

Prosecutors allege Charlise travelled to Mount Wilson from the caravan park alone with Mr Stein on the evening of January 11, 2022, while Ms Mutten stayed behind.

Mr McKay alleges Mr Stein was the “last person” to see Charlise and had the opportunity to her between 7.16pm on January 11 and 10.06am on January 12.

Charlise’s body was found in a barrel on an embankment near the Colo River four days after her mother reported her missing.

After his arrest in January 2022, Mr Stein denied killing Charlise in an interview with a Corrective Services officer but said “her mum shot her twice”, the jury heard.

“Her mum was on ice all week, I heard a shot and then I heard her screaming out for me, then I ran back and she shot her again,” he told the prison guard, the jury heard.

A toxicology report showed Charlise had tested positive for Mr Stein’s schizophrenia medication.

The trial continues before Justice Helen Wilson.

Originally published as Jury in Charlise Mutten alleged murder trial hear how the schoolgirl’s body was found in barrel