Mathew Dunbar mystery death: The grazier and the widow of Walcha
A COUNTRY town has been rocked by the mysterious death of a wealthy wool grower who signed over his multimillion-dollar property to his new partner just months after meeting her. SPECIAL INVESTIGATION BY EMMA PARTRIDGE
NSW
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ASK anyone in the tight-knit country town of Walcha and they will tell you that all sheep farmer Mathew Dunbar ever wanted was love and a family of his own.
It explains why when the 42-year-old bachelor met Natasha Beth Crossman he turned a blind eye to the fact she had once been charged with the attempted murder of her ex-husband and had served jail time for several other offences.
And also why not long after, in early 2016, he did not hesitate to make his new love and mother-of-three the sole beneficiary of his estate — which included his multimillion-dollar merino farm “Pandora”.
But Mr Dunbar’s dream of a happy family life ended in the early hours of August 2 this year when he was found dead inside his property on Thunderbolts Way, just a few minutes’ drive out of town on the southern edge of the Northern Tablelands.
It is the talk of Walcha — cool, often misty home to 1500 people in the heart of some of Australia’s finest wool growing land — where locals are still shocked by the much-loved farmer’s death.
On the night police were called out to the sheep farm, The Daily Telegraph understands Mr Dunbar was found hooked up to a helium gas tank which Ms Crossman had purchased from a Tamworth gas store.
And in a stranger-than-fiction twist, the first paramedic on the scene after Mr Dunbar’s death was Colin Crossman — Ms Crossman’s ex-husband whom she once was accused of attempting to murder.
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The pair remain close despite the fact she was sentenced to three years’ jail after setting fire to the bedroom where Mr Crossman was sleeping in 2009. The charge of attempted murder was dropped and Ms Crossman pleaded guilty to intentionally damaging property by fire. Police continue to treat Mr Dunbar’s death as suspicious.
Ms Crossman maintains her partner committed suicide.
When approached by Daily Telegraph this week, Ms Crossman said the police investigation had finished and that her “kind and sweet” partner had killed himself after previous suicide attempts.
“I was there — I know he killed himself. But I mean [the police] have to investigate,” Ms Crossman said after finishing a long day of shearing at Pandora.
“I’m dealing with post-traumatic stress because I was the one that found him.”
She said Mr Dunbar suffered from depression and she had tried desperately to help him — including hiding medications in her handbag. During their final conversation she said Mr Dunbar was upset about having a limp as a result of a recent leg infection
and depressed at the thought of not being able to run his farm properly.
“I stayed up late talking to him. I thought I got through to him because he started making plans with me but … now when I look back he was preparing me for what needed to be done,” she said as her voice cracked.
Ms Crossman stopped the conversation there. She said she did not want to talk any further about the details of Mr Dunbar’s death without her solicitor and did not wish to make any comment about her criminal history.
But there is not a person in the local cafe, pub or butcher who won’t offer an opinion on what happened to Mr Dunbar or knock back the chance to speculate about when the police will finally wrap up their investigation.
One person who was surprised to learn of his death was neighbour Ross King who recalled speaking to Mr Dunbar on the night of his death.
Mr King said they enjoyed a lighthearted conversation about seeing fellow friend Lance Partridge on Australian Story and Mr Dunbar spoke about how he would have to do physio to fix the limp he had acquired after getting a leg infection.
“He was going to do a physio program — is that a clue that he wasn’t going to kill himself that night?,” asked Mr King who described Mr Dunbar as a “lovely kind soul”.
Ms Crossman originally hails from Culburra Beach on the state’s south coast and moved to Walcha about a decade ago with then husband Colin Crossman.
Their stormy relationship landed her in court before she got together with Mr Dunbar.
In March 2012 she was sentenced to two years and 11 months’ jail with a non-parole period of nine months after she pleaded guilty to intentionally destroying property by fire.
She had originally been charged with the attempted murder of Mr Crossman after setting fire to the family home in Croudace Street in 2009 but on the third day of her NSW District Court trial she pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.
But that was not her only run-in with the law.
She has been convicted of using her former lover’s credit card to go on a $7450 shopping spree in nearby Armidale and once stole a chequebook belong to Shari-Lea Hitchcock, the former mistress of billionaire Richard Pratt, at a pony club event.
The 42-year-old was also jailed for a minimum of 12 months’ in August 2015 for perverting the course of justice after she tried to get a man to change a police statement.
Since the death in August, Ms Crossman has been spending a lot of time with her ex-husband at his house down the road and at Mr Dunbar’s sheep farm.
Mr Crossman, the paramedic, is often seen driving Mr Dunbar’s ute around town.
The Daily Telegraph does not suggest Mr Crossman was in any way involved in Mr Dunbar’s death.
At Mr Dunbar’s funeral on August 17, there were several empty pews behind Ms Crossman as she and her three children sat at the front of Saint Patrick’s Church.
“I fell in love with him because he loved me when I couldn’t even love myself,” she said during the eulogy.
“He said having the children, and I in his life was the happiest he’s ever been, but we are so much better for having had him in ours.”
Grazier Lance Partridge was Mr Dunbar’s closest friend and spoke of his generosity, ability to make people laugh and his commitment the community — evidenced by his involvement in the local poultry club and Local Land Services.
Mr Partridge recently spoke to The Telegraph as he herded cattle down a dirt road outside his Walcha property.
He described the former student from one of the region’s most prestigious schools, The Armidale School, as a simple, trusting man who had always dreamt of having a family of his own.
“Everybody that knew Mathew liked Mathew because he would never hurt anybody he would always help someone out and he was just giving, giving fellow. He’d give his heart,” Mr Partridge said.
Former mayor of Walcha Bill Heazlett lives a few kilometres down the road from Mr Dunbar’s property and enjoyed drinking tea and doing Sudoku puzzles with him every Sunday.
He counted Mr Dunbar as a close friend and said the last time he saw him, “There was no heads-up that there was anything amiss”.
His wife Dianne Heazlett explained Mr Dunbar was adopted and had been very close to his father until his death.
“Mathew was a very kind, gentle, generous and lonely man that was desperate for a family.”
NSW Police would not make any official comment about their investigation into Mr Dunbar’s death except to confirm the homicide squad were assisting and the death was still being treated as “suspicious”.