Tragic ‘accidental’ woodchipper death becomes murder case
TWO men and a woman conspired together before the murder of a man who was previously thought to have died accidentally in a woodchipper, police will allege.
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TWO men and a woman conspired together before the Queensland murder of a man who was previously thought to have died accidentally in a woodchipper, police will allege.
Today, a major case breakthrough saw two men and a woman charged with the woodchipper murder of Nambour man Bruce Saunders.
Peter John Koenig, 61, of Gympie, and Gregory Lee Roser, 59, of Deception Bay, appeared in Maroochydore Magistrates Court today.
Both have been charged with murder and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
In a brief hearing the men’s lawyers said their clients would be defending the charges, and indicated they will plead not guilty.
Sharon Graham, 57, of the Sunshine Coast, has also been charged with murder and attempting to pervert justice, but is yet to face court.
She was previously in a relationship with Mr Saunders and lived with him in Nambour.
More recently she was romantically involved with Mr Roser.
The two men were remanded in custody and will appear in court later this year.
Earlier it was revealed police would allege the three conspired before the murder of Mr Saunders, who was originally thought to have died accidentally in a woodchipper.
Wearing large sunglasses and in handcuffs, Graham arrived at Maroochydore police station this afternoon.
Bruce Saunders, 54, had been working on a rural property near Goomboorian, near Gympie, with the two men in November last year when it was thought he became entangled in the woodchipper and died.
The incident was originally treated as a tragic accident but the case was re-examined earlier this year.
Detectives today arrested the men and took them to the Maroochydore watch house about 6.30am.
Police arrested Graham in Coolangatta as she was travelling from NSW to Queensland.
Police today would not say if they believed Mr Saunders was still alive when he entered the machine.
“I can’t comment on that but the injuries he sustained were horrific, as you could imagine, being consumed by a woodchipper,” Detective Inspector Gary Pettiford said.
He also would not say what motive the trio may have allegedly had, but said they knew each other and it would be alleged that they planned the grisly crime together.
“We will be alleging this was not an accident, and that they did conspire together,” Detective Inspector Gary Pettiford said.
The arrests come after police announced in February they were talking to people of interest in relation to the death, after a person contacted them.
Officers returned to the site earlier this year to scour about 160sq m of property, during which they uncovered fragments of human remains, clothing and parts of what police believe was a mobile phone that went into the woodchipper last year.
“Many months of very professional, pain-staking work has culminated in the arrest of three people,” Detective Inspector Gary Pettiford said today.
At the time Gympie Police acting Inspector Paul Algie described it as one of the worst incident scenes he had witnessed.
“It was actually quite horrific,” acting Inspector Algie told media at the time.
Mr Saunders hailed from Bundaberg where he ran a butcher shop that had been in his family for three generations.
He moved to Nambour in 2016 after his business closed but remained in the meat industry. Friends and family have been left devastated by the death of a man they said was trusting to a fault and always ready to help others.