Woodchipper murderer’s twisted Facebook post as web of lies, sex and deception exposed
The web of lies spun by a convicted killer who plotted her ex-partner’s murder in a woodchipper has been exposed.
Sharon Graham’s sinister web of sex and deception ended in the bloody murder of her ex-partner Bruce Saunders.
First responders found his shredded limbs sticking out of a woodchipper which was staged as an accident before Graham was to inherit the contents of his will and a lucrative life insurance policy worth $750,000.
Months after being sent to jail for the rest of her life, two Facebook profiles paint a grim picture of the architect.
Dozens of pictures, some dating back years, capture her smiling, laughing, drinking at the pub and posing in Christmas costume.
Her introduction on one profile reads: “I’m a carring (sic) loving happy person. Love life.”
But the introductions on both profiles share a single, cryptic message.
“Those who hesitate have lost.”
The message becomes fairly ironic in the circumstances Graham now finds herself in and after a judge said she displayed “deep-seated psychopathy”.
She was jailed for life in October for murdering her ex-partner Mr Saunders, a Nambour butcher, after arranging for him to be fed to an industrial woodchipper.
The complicated relationships
In a twisted display of cruelty, she hatched a plan to take it all from Mr Saunders and cover up every inch of her involvement. It would be the perfect crime: nothing left behind, everything to gain.
But she didn’t have the guts to do any of it.
Instead, she drew in the work of her two cronies – Peter Koenig and Gregory Roser – to bring her horrifying plan into reality.
Graham had started a relationship with Mr Saunders after meeting online in 2016. She followed him to Toowoomba, then Bli Bli on the Sunshine Coast, and finally Nambour where they settled in a home bought on Wentworth Court.
In 2017, after breaking up with Mr Saunders, she started a relationship with Roser.
She left Mr Saunders’ house for a while, but returned, staying in a separate bedroom. Roser lived in a caravan park out of Deception Bay.
Koenig had also been previously intimate with Graham. He had even taken nude pictures of her – but this had been reduced to a “tortured” friendship.
The former truck driver said the pair had met while Graham lived in South Australia with another ex-partner.
Sharon Graham’s heinous plans
Graham’s methods of carrying out the murder varied.
At first, she wanted Roser to shoot Mr Saunders in his home, while he slept.
She then revised the plan, ordering her boyfriend to shoot Mr Saunders in the car park behind his work.
A subsequent police search of Roser’s caravan found handwritten documents describing Mr Saunders’ shift times at IGA stores in Noosa Junction and Yandina, his usual car park spot, as well as his car model and number plate.
One note read: “3.30-4am HAS TO BE THERE BEFORE HE WAKES UP”. It also listed Mr Saunders’ Wentworth Court address, directions to the master bedroom he slept in and details of an alarm in the house.
Another read: “dates to be done … 14-23 July.”
Those specific dates were when Graham flew down to Adelaide and returned home for a holiday.
Instead, she settled on a more remote decision.
Sharon Beighton, a friend of Graham’s, needed help clearing her property in Goomboorian, near Gympie, so she could sell it.
Graham enlisted the help of Mr Saunders, Roser and Koenig to clear trees over several weekends in November 2017.
Mr Saunders used his own money to pay for an industrial woodchipper for the job.
It would be the very machine he would be killed in – all part of Graham’s plan.
At her murder trial, Koenig himself gave evidence he saw Roser deliver the fatal blow to Mr Saunders with a metal bar.
After feeling the 54-year-old “brush” past his arm he saw Mr Saunders on the ground, before Roser struck him in the head again.
“He (Roser) asked me to give him a hand to bring him down to the woodchipper,” Koenig said in his evidence.
“I had his legs, Greg had his arms.”
The pair then fed Mr Saunders into the machine, head first.
All that remained were his legs, from the top of his thighs to his feet.
Koenig, who was initially charged with Mr Saunders’ murder, pleaded guilty to a charge of accessory after the fact to murder in July 2022.
In exchange for his release after some four years in pre-sentence custody, he gave evidence against Roser and Graham at their respective murder trials.
Roser was convicted of Mr Saunders’ murder in 2022 and sentenced to life in prison.
Graham was also convicted of murder in late October.
Throughout her trial, the Crown contended she procured Roser to murder Mr Saunders with Koenig’s help.
He was worth “more dead than alive” to her; she would gain more than $800,000 in assets upon his death, including the lucrative aforementioned life insurance policy.
The Crown pointed to covert recordings taken at Mr Saunders’ home following his death, capturing the worried whispers of the trio getting their “story straight”.
They relied on detectives pointing out inaccuracies in Koenig and Roser’s accounts of Mr Saunders’ death, including strange bloodstains near the woodchipper which came from a vertical source.
They relied on Koenig, who said he helped carry out the shocking deed and became caught up in the horrific plot to cover up what happened.
Graham had pleaded not guilty, insisting she thought Mr Saunders’ death was an accident.
But a jury was not swayed, finding her guilty on the count.
Supreme Court Justice Martin Burns, who had also presided over the pre-trial hearings and Roser’s sentencing, summed up the kind of person Graham was in his sentence:
“By my observations you have displayed the hallmarks of deep-seated psychopathy,” Justice Burns said.
“If at any point the authorities seriously consider your release, I ask they keep that observation firmly in mind.”
‘You are a despicable human’
No one has felt the pain of losing Mr Saunders more than his son, Blake Saunders.
Upon Graham’s guilty verdict being returned, he and others screamed with joy, breaking into tears while she sat motionless and unmoving in the Supreme Court dock.
It brings an end to the six-year nightmare that has plagued his life.
In his victim impact statement, Blake spoke of his father being a “loving, gentle, funny, kind, hardworking and trusting man”.
“After losing my Mum, Dad was strong and helped me cope and come to terms with losing my Mum,” Blake’s victim impact statement read.
“Sometimes, I wonder if Dad prioritised my needs so much that he didn’t seek the help he needed to cope with our loss.
“Mum and Dad had a wonderful 22 years of marriage and a very deep love for each other.”
Blake’s statement reveals the horrifying twist Graham pulled following his father’s death.
On the day of Bruce Saunders’ funeral, Graham turned up, sitting beside Blake in the front row, between his family members.
“You pretended to cry in a pathetic way, trying to look upset, trying to cover up the guilt of a murder you meticulously planned,” Blake said in his statement.
“Then I offered my arm to you in an act of support.
“Little did I know then, that you planned, orchestrated and covered up my father’s shocking murder.
“Consoling you at that distressing time will haunt me for the rest of my life.”
In another despicable act, Graham then requested Bruce’s ashes be split, so she could keep half.
“This, all part of your evil plan to make it look like you were a grieving girlfriend, but really it was you trying to hide your guilt and cover up his murder,” Blake’s statement said.
He spoke of the six years he lay awake at night with thoughts of his father’s death, how his health had declined and his depression set in.
“You took his life – for an insurance policy,” Blake’s statement said.
“You are a despicable human.
“Those that knew and loved my dad will remember him as the wonderful, kind, selfless, compassionate, decent man that he was. Traits and characteristics that you do not possess and probably cannot comprehend.
“I cannot put into words the anger and resentment I have for you, for taking my dad from me.”
Where are your friends now Sharon?
Sharon Beighton, the woman whose property was the scene of the shocking crime, did not hold back on Graham either.
She spoke of how her husband Andrew and herself thought of Graham as family. How they trusted her, went on holidays together and shared meals, even Christmas.
Ms Beighton treated Graham like a sister.
“I defended you when everyone said that you were involved in Bruce’s death, I kept thinking: ‘No way, I know her. She’s a Christian, she wouldn’t take someone’s life like that’,” Ms Beighton’s victim impact statement said.
“It is hard to believe that you would arrange to do such a thing.
“When I sit and think about things, Bruce was more of a friend to us than you could ever be, as no true friend would do what you have done, and on our property.”
Ms Beighton revealed she had a complete breakdown. She couldn’t trust anyone, she never left the bedroom of her daughter’s home. She confided only in her dog, Hope.
“She (Hope) shows compassion and unconditional love, which you lack. You show no empathy, no emotion, no compassion for others,” Ms Beighton said of Graham.
“You stole my sense of trust in humanity, that I could not put myself into a position of opening up to others.
“I wished I had never met you.
“Where are your friends now Sharon? They have all gone.”