Men, money and manipulation: Inside Queensland grandmother’s sinister murder plot
A Queensland grandmother’s sinister murder plot has been exposed after she was found guilty of orchestrating her partner’s killing. WARNING: Graphic
Warning: Graphic
I’ve covered some of Australia’s most horrific criminal cases; the kind that would turn your stomach and make you hug your loved ones a little tighter at night.
So when I stepped into a courtroom to cover a murder case on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast in 2019, I remember thinking there wasn’t much that could surprise me. After everything I’d witnessed of what humans were capable of, surely, I’d seen it all.
I was naïve. I was wrong. I walked into the Maroochydore Magistrates Court and sat down in the public gallery, where I learnt about a murder case that I wouldn’t leave alone for the next five years.
A suburban grandmother, Sharon Graham, who went by the nickname ‘Muffin’ was accused of orchestrating her ex-partner’s gruesome murder, one involving a woodchipper.
The death was staged to look like a tragic accident on a rural property where three men were clearing trees as a supposed favour for a widow.
But instead of Muffin’s ex falling into the machine through his own misadventure, as told to police, Bruce Saunders’ death was soon revealed to be a meticulously planned murder carried out by Muffin’s fiancé Greg Roser, and covered up by her former lover Peter Koenig, so that she could benefit financially.
Sharon Graham stood to gain up to $1 million in Saunders’ life insurance, superannuation and assets.
As the Crown Prosecutor at her murder trial later put it, Bruce was worth more dead to her than alive.
So as I sat in the courtroom hearing the prosecution’s case and witnessing some of the most graphic crime scene photos and videos I’d ever seen, I remember wondering, if this is true, how did a suburban grandmother convince these two men to do it?
What kind of person orchestrates their ex’s murder, and for money?
Those questions led me on a five-year journey for answers, where I spent months in and out of court, got access to court transcripts and evidence, travelled hundreds of kilometres to interview people close to the case, and spent a year investigating Bruce Saunders’ killers.
I brought everything I learnt together into my new podcast series ‘Crime In Focus: Killer Charm’.
Murder plots and a motive
One of the standout parts of the case that differed from those I’d covered before was the mountains of evidence that police found during their investigation, and the methods they used to unravel the trio’s lies.
There was forensic evidence located at the scene that helped disprove the supposed accident and instead pointed to a likely homicide.
There were handwritten notes written about previous murder plots from well before the woodchipper plan.
Police obtained over 16-thousand hours of covert recordings, which captured incriminating conversations between Sharon, Greg and Peter, after planting listening devices in properties where they were staying.
There were multiple witnesses who spoke of hearing about various murder plots and ‘premonitions’, as well as allegations that Sharon had money-driven murder on her mind well before her relationship with Bruce Saunders.
Two telling phone call recordings played in court, one between Muffin and an ambulance operator the night of the murder, and another between her and Bruce Saunders’ life insurance provider a few days later, laid bare her level of manipulation, and her motive.
Uncovering Muffin’s Pattern
As I continued to investigate the case and killers outside of the courtroom, I found out more information that had never been made public.
I learnt there was much more to this story than had been told in court, and Sharon’s plotting extended beyond the murder.
While interviewing Sharon Graham’s daughter Rebecca, she told me about her mother’s knack for getting men to sign over their wills.
“The more I got to know her past she somehow manages to get men to leave everything to her in their wills,” she said.
“Seven men had her in [their] wills”.
According to Rebecca, her mother would boast about the number of men who’d named her as beneficiary on their wills, wearing it as an “amazing” accolade.
While I didn’t interview every man from Sharon’s past, I was able to confirm at least four of these wills just from her relationships from the early 2000’s on.
One was her former partner of over a decade, Barry Collins.
He told me the pair had made life arrangements during their relationship, and that Sharon stood to benefit from both his will and superannuation.
“She said, we need to do some wills just in case you have an accident,” he said.
That information became even more suspicious after Sharon’s former lover, Peter Koenig, later spoke in court, saying that Sharon once asked him to tamper with the Barry Collins’ truck wires, so he’d “have an accident”, and because Barry had a lot of superannuation.
‘Let’s get life insurance’
As well as Barry, I also interviewed another partner from Sharon’s past who had been with her for about five months; Ron Fabry.
According to Ron, one day after his and Sharon’s split, the police rocked up on his doorstep asking why Sharon Graham had been found with all of his mail, including documents relating to his super account.
He said he’d never mentioned his super to Sharon but claimed that he had large funds from working both overseas and in Australia.
“The only think I could think (of) … a statement come through the mail and she got it,” he said.
According to Ron, Sharon also made another request during their relationship that sounded all too familiar.
“She said let’s get life insurance together,” he said.
“(Because) we gonna be together. I said no.”
After speaking to Barry, Ron and Rebecca, it looked as though I’d managed to uncover a pattern of Sharon Graham’s behaviour.
She didn’t just look for men who had money, she took steps to make it her own.
Well before being in a relationship with Bruce Saunders, and eventually orchestrating his murder, Sharon Graham made attempts at previous partners’ wills, superannuation and life insurance policies too.
When those attempts fell short, she kept trying.
She’d eventually find her way onto her new partner Bruce Saunders’ will, next in line for his assets, including his home and car.
She’d become beneficiary to his super funds and death benefit, and $750, 000 life insurance policy, which he’d upped just weeks before his death.
With everything else in place, there was only one thing in the way of Sharon getting the money and lifestyle she’d set her sights on.
Bruce Saunders
Bruce, a doting dad, beloved son and brother, Muffin’s ex-partner and supposed friend, the man who was still in love with her, letting her live in a room at his house, and who was actively trying to repair their relationship.
As her murder trial later heard, Sharon Graham would go on to think up multiple different murder plots alongside her new fiancé Greg Roser, all of which saw Sharon take the back seat, but dishing out the instructions for when, where and how the murder could take place, but Greg Roser or Peter Koenig the ones needed to carry out physical killing.
Sharon spoke to her ex Barry Collins and posed the idea of taking Bruce on a one way fishing trip on his boat, which was brushed off by Barry.
Next Sharon gave details of how Greg could go to Bruce’s house and find him in his room in the early hours of the morning, or on his way to work, to shoot him with a revolver.
But when the gun she acquired was “too loud”, then came the eventual woodchipper plan.
Sharon learnt her best friend needed to clear some trees on her rural property to ready it for sale.
She seized the opportunity and organised a “surprise” for her friend, bringing together three men she knew to clear the trees with chainsaws and a woodchipper.
She counselled her fiancé’ Greg Roser to murder her ex.
He’d later beat him with a metal bar, before and Sharon’s former lover, Peter Koenig, fed the body through a woodchipper to make it appear as a tragic workplace accident.
At first glance, while the scene did appear to fit that of a woodchipper tragedy, it wasn’t long before police cottoned on to the lie, and evidence and witnesses began painting a different picture of the night, as well as of Sharon Graham as a manipulative, greedy ex-partner who’d do anything for Bruce Saunders funds.
Bruce’s Killers Caught
As I sit writing this article in late 2024 Bruce Saunders killers have since been found guilty and each handed separate life sentences.
Before the case reached trial, Sharon’s former lover, Peter Koenig, struck a deal.
He agreed to out Sharon Graham and Greg Roser in return for accepting a lesser charge of being an accessory after the fact to murder.
He served four years and two months behind bars.
In a murder trial in 2022, Greg Roser, Sharon Graham’s then fiancé, was found guilty of killing Bruce Saunders before he and Peter placed the body through a woodchipper at a rural Gympie region property.
In 2023 after four separate attempts at her murder trial, Sharon Graham was also found guilty of orchestrating Bruce Saunders murder, with a jury finding ‘Muffin’ counselled or procured Greg Roser to do it.
Justice Martin Burns told the court, Sharon was a ‘rare brand of evil’ and had displayed the hallmark signs of ‘deep-seated psychopathy’, information he hoped authorities would consider long and hard before ever contemplating her release.
However, since both Greg and Sharon were sentenced, they’ve each lodged notices of appeal in relation to their convictions, on the grounds their verdicts were unreasonable and couldn’t be supported by the evidence.
Earlier this month Greg Roser’s was listed for a hearing next year, while Sharon Graham’s is yet to progress any further.
As for Bruce Saunders’ loved ones, and those once close to Sharon, who’ll forever wear the scars of her crimes, their first chance at closure’s now had the Band-Aid ripped back, and they’re again left waiting for justice.
Crime In Focus: Killer Charm is a six-part LiSTNR podcast investigation available now wherever you get your podcasts
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