How Charlotte Lindstrom wanted two men ‘put in cemetery’
Swedish model Charlotte Lindstrom was one of the most glamorous targets ever dealt with by the undercover police branch. She was also one of its most ruthless. Today, the “hitman” she hired breaks his silence. EXCLUSIVE AUDIO
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Charlotte Lindstrom will go down in history as one the most glamorous targets ever dealt with by the NSW Undercover Branch. She was also one of its most ruthless.
“I couldn’t believe how cold she was,” said Rob, who met with her twice as a ‘hitman’, in May 2007, and took repeated instructions from her to kill two Crown witnesses.
Few cases have captured the public’s attention like that of Lindstrom: an alluring young woman seemingly blinded by love when she attempted to have two Crown witnesses murdered on behalf of her fiance.
Originally a backpacker, Lindstrom arrived in Sydney with her boyfriend off a sailing holiday through the South Pacific in 2003.
The plan was to stay in Australia just a few months on a working holiday visa, but by 2004 she’d split with her boyfriend and found Steven Spaliviero, a swarthy man twice her age who exhilarated with his worldly charm and smouldering mystique.
A fast-living criminal, he stored cash in strange places and revved around town in a sleek-looking Porsche.
“He fascinated me,” she later told a psychologist, long after her arrest.
“He made me feel important and special. He knew so much about everything, and he was manly. I felt really safe with him.”
Business had been running smoothly for Spaliviero’s criminal enterprise until one of his drug labs blew up by accident in the outer suburbs of Sydney.
Dummy companies had been used to lease the warehouse and source the glassware, but police had found two Crown witnesses who could nail him to the crime.
“I got greedy,” he told The Sunday Telegraph. “I set up drug labs. I just kept doing them and doing them and one thing led to another.”
On Charlotte’s account, Spaliviero wanted to kill off these witnesses to force the collapse of his trial, but for weeks he’d been struggling to arrange a reliable killer. (He denied this at his own court hearing and said he was only trying to source information about the witnesses to discredit them.).
A fellow inmate heard his gripes and, after cutting a deal with police, offered to put him in touch with a no-nonsense professional.
A few days later, on May 25, Charlotte arrived on the steps of Town Hall where Rob was waiting. She was carrying an envelope.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“Information,” she said.
Inside he found a photograph of the two witnesses (one of whom was the wrong person), an address where he could find them, and a mud-map of where they worked. “I’ve got to know exactly what he wants done,” Rob said.
“Does he want these people in the hospital or in the cemetery?”
“I think more so the cemetery,” she told him, offering $100,000 for each slaying.
“All I need is five grand,” Rob explained, telling her the money would pay for his surveillance, petrol, and a deposit on an overseas flight, which he would take once the job was finished.
The next day Lindstrom strutted down George Street in blue jeans and dark glasses, her path shadowed by a surveillance team.
She apologised as she sat down. Something had gone wrong with the cash.
“On Monday I’ll have all the information and I’ll bring you some money as well,” she promised.
This admission was all he needed. He asked a final time about his instructions.
“He definitely wants them in the cemetery?”
“Yep,” she said, without hesitation.
Lindstrom served two-years in prison, striking a plea-deal and delivering hours of teary evidence against her former fiance in the witness box.
She left Australia shortly after her release and was unable to be reached for comment.
A jury would end up acquitting Spaliviero of soliciting the murders after hearing phone calls that proved he didn’t want Charlotte to meet with Rob.
It signalled to the jury that she acted on her own.
He was released from prison in 2017 after serving 11 years for the original drug manufacturing charges.
“It’s been 12 years now and I wish it never happened,” he said.
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