Co-accused in bed after woodchipper death

Laine Clark | September 23, 2022

The night Bruce Saunders was found in a woodchipper Sharon Graham moved into his room, soon sharing the bed with murder co-accused Gregory Lee Roser, a court has heard.

And the day after his death, Graham had allegedly produced Mr Saunders’ will, saying he had “left everything to her”.

Graham, 61, and Roser, 63, are on trial having pleaded not guilty to murder after Mr Saunders, 54, died while working on a property north of Brisbane in November 2017.

Graham is accused of asking Roser and another man, Peter Koenig, to kill Mr Saunders and make it look like an accident to claim her ex-partner’s $750,000 life insurance policy.

The jury has been shown pictures and police video of Mr Saunders’ legs protruding from the chipper at the Goomboorian property near Gympie after he had been clearing trees with Roser and Koenig.

Graham’s daughter said her mother was “hysterical” when she first rang on the night Mr Saunders died and was taken to Nambour hospital by ambulance.

At the time Graham was living with Mr Saunders at Nambour but they had split and were using separate bedrooms.

Daughter Rebecca Graham said after collecting her from hospital her mother slept in Mr Saunders’ master bedroom “the same night” of his death, with lover Roser joining “a couple of days after”.

Graham has been accused of being in a “love quadrangle” with Roser, Koenig and Mr Saunders, plotting the latter’s murder for months.

The day after his death Graham brought out Mr Saunders’ will, her daughter said.

“(She said) that Bruce had left everything to her and made her the executor of the will,” she told the Surpreme Court on Friday.

“I asked why anything had not been left (to Mr Saunders’ son).

“My mum said that Bruce felt that (his son) had already inherited enough from the passing of his mother and didn’t need any more money.”

Rebecca Graham noticed a recent change to the will where her mother’s relationship with Mr Saunders had been changed from “partner” to “friend”.

When Koenig and Roser came to the Nambour house in the days after the death they appeared “in shock”, Graham’s daughter said.

However Graham became “annoyed” with Koenig because he was so upset, she said.

“She said words to the effect of ‘it was just an accident, get over it’,” Rebecca Graham said.

Family friend Douglas Taylor then described Graham’s reaction after she heard police describe the death as “the most horrific accident they had ever seen”.

“She said ‘of course, they always say that’,” he said.

“Peter (Koenig) flicked his hands into the (kitchen sink) water and said ‘this is what it was like … it was like mush – don’t say it wasn’t horrific’ – he was very distraught.”

Koenig and Roser told them Mr Saunders had died because he was being “reckless” near the chipper, he said.

“Peter and Greg were telling a story about the neighbour coming over and … said ‘I can’t stay and watch this, someone is going to get killed’,” Mr Taylor said.

Koenig and Roser also claimed the chipper was “poorly designed” and didn’t appear safe, he said.

However, work colleagues on Friday said Mr Saunders – who was a butcher – was safety conscious, always wore protective gear and was careful around machines like band saws.

“Safety was always first with him,” Joseph Sciberas said.

Rebecca Graham described Mr Saunders as “lovely, very kind” to her mother.

But she said her mother’s attitude towards Mr Saunders was disgusting.

“She was quite mean and rude to him, always talked down to him,” she said.

However, after Mr Saunders’ death she said her mother posted on Facebook that she was “devastated that she had lost the love of her life”.

The trial before Justice Martin Burns continues.