Tradie suffocated, shoved in box over $50k ‘drug debt’
Miklos Bolza |
A man’s early confession of guilt after helping to kill a tradie and shove his body into a metal box over a perceived $50,000 drug debt has sliced years off his jail term.
Darcy Schafer-Turner died after he was put in a chokehold, tied up with duct tape and held down by two men in a Sydney apartment on April 27, 2023.
Suffocating on his own vomit, the 22-year-old tradie was unable to be revived at the Peakhurst residence before his body was put into the box and dumped into a creek.
One of the attackers – Zachary Richard Fraser, 24 – was jailed on Wednesday for six-and-a-half years for manslaughter.
Fraser and another man – who fled the country to Germany and cannot be named for legal reasons – believed Mr Schafer-Turner owed a drug debt of $50,000.
They lured him to the unit, saying they had cocaine for him to on-sell.
But plans went awry.
“There is someone laying on the floor in my bathroom dead,” Fraser wrote to an acquaintance on messaging app Signal.
“It was an accident. I only meant to tie him up.”
The man, whom Fraser had met through online gaming and also cannot be legally named, then reached out to a “cleaner” in Queensland.
Charles Dennis Turnbull, 36, caught a flight to Sydney and met the victim’s attackers, joining them in a trip to Bunnings for a metal cabinet.
Mr Schafer-Turner’s body was then placed in the metal cabinet, loaded onto the back of a ute and driven five hours’ north to Macksville by Turnbull.
Turnbull, acting on a $30,000 offer, was later paid $20,000 by Fraser for his services.
A missing persons report and subsequent police investigation led to the discovery of Mr Schafer-Turner’s body in a creek south of Macksville on May 12.
Fraser was arrested three days later.
While there had been an attempt to revive Mr Schafer-Turner, neither of his two attackers called emergency services for help, Justice Nicholas Chen said.
Fraser took further steps of contacting the “cleaner” to try and cover up the crime, the judge said.
The 24-year-old’s arguments that what occurred was “essentially spontaneous” were rejected by the judge who pointed out it had been spurred on by the perceived drug debt.
The incident had caused pain for the loved ones of the 22-year-old victim, described as a funny, caring young man with an adventurous spirit who was unconditionally loved.
“The taking of Darcy Schafer-Turner’s life is a tragedy that has caused profound grief and sorrow to his family and those close to him,” the judge said.
But Fraser’s sentence was reduced because of his lack of a criminal record, his prior good character and an early guilty plea.
He had shown genuine remorse, accepting responsibility for the death and was unlikely to re-offend when released, Justice Chen found.
His time in custody would be made more onerous by his diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder, persistent depressive disorder and dependent personality disorder.
But the judge dismissed arguments the latter disorder – which manifests as clingy behaviour and submissiveness – spurred on the unlawful and dangerous attack.
The 24-year-old claimed the disorder meant he went along with the scheme at the other man’s request.
With time served, Fraser will be eligible for release in July 2027 after being behind bars for four years and two months.
Turnbull pleaded guilty to being an accessory to manslaughter and was sentenced to a maximum sentence of three years and three months in December 2024.
His two-year non-parole period expired in May.
AAP
