Sydney hoarder murdered man, then lived with his body for 15 years, inquest finds
A Sydney hoarder murdered a man before living with his mummified remains for 15 years, an inquest has found.
Dramatic scenes erupted at the inquest of Shane Snellman, whose mummified body was found in the house of a deceased hoarder, after it was revealed he was murdered by Bruce Roberts.
The inquiry before the NSW Coroner’s Court heard that Bruce Roberts lived with the body decomposing in a bedroom for 15 years before Roberts’ own death of natural causes.
But after Deputy State Coroner Derek Lee heard that Mr Snellman, a methamphetamine addict, had likely broken into Mr Roberts’ Greenwich house, the murdered man’s sister erupted in court.
“No, he never gained forced entry. He never broke into that house. He already knew him (Roberts),” the woman, only identified as Belinda, yelled out in the Coroner’s Court.
The inquest heard that Mr Roberts, who was 46 at the time, shot Mr Snellman, who was 39, in his house on Sydney’s North Shore in October, 2002.
Police later found 19 illegal firearms and large stocks of ammunition among piles of hoarded debris in Mr Roberts’ house.
Mr Snellman’s body was found on May 29, 2018 by cleaners clearing the premises for sale a year after Mr Roberts was found dead, likely from a heart attack in 2017.
The Coroner’s Court heard that a very large amount of air freshener products were located around his body in a bedroom in Mr Robert’s house.
Mr Snellman was fully-clothed in a seated position slumped to the left. He had a gunshot wound to the supraclavicular fossa, the indentation in the neck above the collar bone.
The murdered man’s remains were identified via tattoos, DNA and fingerprints from his career as a criminal.
Mr Snellman had 15 metallic fragments in his chest and abdomen and toxicology of his remains revealed he had taken amphetamines, buprenorphine and methamphetamine before his death.
The inquest described Snellman and Roberts as “strangers in life” who had a “chance encounter” at the hoarder’s Greenwich house.
Bruce Andrew Roberts was born in Coonabarabran in 1956 to a wealthy family which owned the Greenwich house, but had a bad relationship with his sister.
His cousin, to whom Roberts was close, described him as “a bit strange, a loner, socially awkward”.
Mr Roberts paid his relatives out to secure the Greenwich house, and lived there, not needing to work because he had inherited more than $1 million in BHP and other shares.
At the time of his 2017 death, he had more than $600,000 in the bank.
His reclusiveness had worsened as he got older, and he suffered from hypertension, varicose veins and had last visited his doctor in May 2017, complaining of chest pains but refusing treatment.
When neighbours didn’t see him for a few weeks, they phoned police who forced entry into the house.
Amid the debris inside they found then-60-year-old Mr Roberts’ body lying on top of an active bar heater, with significant damage to the body from the heater still being on. The remains has “accelerated decompositional change” and “extreme charring”.
Cleaners did not begin clearing the premises until May 24, 2018, making the grisly discovery of Mr Snellman’s remains five days later.
The inquest heard that Shane John Snellman had been placed in a Catholic convent home for children at a young age and then moved around boys’ homes.
As a 15-year-old, he had been charged with the murder of a homeless man, acquitted, and had then become dependent on drugs.
Snellman served custodial sentences for property and theft offences and prior to his murder had spent a year in prison between 2001 and June 2002 for a drug supply conviction.
On his release, he met up with an old girlfriend, who described him as “thin and likely addicted to methylamphetamine”.
He was last seen living in shared accommodation in Campbelltown in October 2002, the same month he was murdered.
Mr Snellman had been estranged from his family for years before he was killed.
John Snellman described his son as a good person, but impulsive.
One of Shane’s sisters, Tracy Lee Snellman Trudgett, said she had last seen her brother on a prison visit in about 2008, but that he had “never been forgotten”.
She said she had “screamed and fell to the floor” when police knocked on her door to say they had found the remains of her only brother.
Following the mummified corpse’s discovery, neighbours of the Greenwich house described the former homeowner Roberts as a “creepy” loner and hoarder.
“No-one’s been near the home. The home would have been fairly bad inside,” next door neighbour Gayle Meagher told nine.com.au.
“He had mental issues and was a bit of a recluse.
“Everything was locked up. You couldn’t see inside the windows. We would just hear him or see him outside always in a big, brown coat regardless of the weather.”
Bruce Roberts died of an apparent heart attack inside the house which was stuffed with hoarded goods
The house, on Greendale Street, Greenwich was sold for $2.01m in 2018, and has since been demolished leaving the 600 sqm plot still vacant.