Woman’s wheelie bin death ‘undetermined’, coroner tells family
By Cloe Read
A coroner has given his findings to the family of a former Brisbane school teacher, who detectives believed was dumped in a wheelie bin, ruling her cause of death as “undetermined”.
Lesley Trotter, 78, was reported missing in 2023 from her Toowong home, with detectives launching a widescale search for her remains after detectives determined her body had been placed in a general waste wheelie bin on Maryvale Street.
Lesley Trotter, a former Brisbane teacher, went missing in 2023 from her Toowong home.
Blood was found at a nearby unit’s bin area, and at the time police investigated whether her habits of checking through bins at her apartment complex had created “angst” among her neighbours.
Detectives narrowed down that the bin was picked up by a rubbish truck on the morning of March 28, 2023, before dumping a load at a waste transfer station at Nudgee in Brisbane’s north.
The loads were compressed, and then taken to sites at Rochedale and Swanbank. Police said teams searched for weeks through 1000 tonnes of waste material to find Trotter.
Police were hopeful engineers had narrowed down the area where her remains were, but she was never found.
Police searched nearly 1000 tonnes of waste material in their search for Lesley Trotter.
Trotter was declared missing after her family visited her home, only to find her phone and wallet still at the property, and no sign of the 78-year-old.
The disappearance was out of character for Trotter, a keen hiker and former teacher who had been looking forward to moving into a retirement home.
A spokesman for the Coroners Court said the investigation was now finalised, with chamber findings provided to the family.
“Coroner [Donald] MacKenzie found that Ms Trotter is deceased, but the cause of her death remains undetermined,” he said.
“No further information will be released at this time.”
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