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Sharon Beighton was initially in shock when told Bruce Saunders had fallen into a woodchipper during a “terrible accident” on her property in 2017.
But Beighton later thought it did not make sense after she asked Gregory Lee Roser questions about the incident, the Brisbane supreme court heard on Tuesday.
Roser, 63, and Sharon Graham, 61, have been charged with murder after 54-year-old Saunders died while working on Beighton’s property north of Brisbane in November 2017.
Beighton had fallen asleep in her house while Saunders, Roser and another man, Peter Koenig, were finishing clearing her property near Gympie before she was abruptly awoken.
She said that when she went outside, Koenig appeared in shock and Roser looked like he was vomiting.
“I remember … thinking where’s Bruce?” Beighton told the court on Tuesday.
“Peter said, ‘there’s been a terrible accident’. Greg said to me, ‘I tried to save him, I tried to pull him out’. I said, ‘what do you mean?’ and he said, ‘he went through the chipper’.”
Beighton said she was surprised that neither man had called the police but was told Roser’s phone had no reception and Koenig’s device was dead.
She told the jury on Tuesday her property usually had “great” phone reception.
However, Beighton said Roser later told her that he had called Graham “down at the chipper” to tell her what happened and had to ring an ambulance for her because “her blood pressure went through the roof”.
When Roser and Koenig later returned from the police station where they provided a statement, Beighton said she started asking the pair more questions about what had happened.
She said Roser told her Saunders had been an “absolute idiot on the day” and had been “standing on the chipper, leaning back into it”.
Roser told her Saunders had been “woozy all the time” and bleeding that day after being struck on the head by a falling branch – but he refused medical treatment.
However, Beighton told the jurors she had seen Saunders hours earlier and he appeared in good health.
“I didn’t see any blood on Bruce so to me it didn’t make sense. I think I was in shock [so] I didn’t think to question a lot of things until later,” she said on Tuesday.
Graham was in a “love quadrangle” with Roser, Koenig and Saunders, plotting the latter’s murder for months, the court has been told.
Beighton’s granddaughter told the jury Graham would make a “big deal” about how much money Saunders had and that “he would die first and she would get everything”.
Keira-Lee Beighton said Graham also claimed “it’s not my fault that he loves me and wants to give me everything”.
However, former work colleagues said Saunders was in debt and had to borrow money to maintain Graham’s lifestyle but never mentioned it to his partner for fear of losing her.
Keren Armstrong told the court Saunders would ring in tears telling her Graham had hit him.
Another colleague, Christeena Grills, said a month before his death a “distraught” Saunders had rung saying Graham was verbally abusive.
Saunders had also told her Graham was “domineering and controlling” and that he was “quite scared of her”, the court heard.
Grills said Graham had told Saunders a former partner “knew people who knew how to make someone disappear”.
Graham would also demand money, with Saunders at one stage “caving in” and paying her $11,000, the court heard.
When Grills suggested he leave Graham, Saunders told her “I know I have to” but he didn’t know how to do it.
It is alleged Graham asked Roser and Koenig to kill Saunders and make it look like an accident in order to claim his $750,000 life insurance policy.
Roser is accused of killing Saunders by hitting his head with an iron bar before Koenig helped him feed the body into the woodchipper. Roser and Graham have pleaded not guilty to murder.
Koenig pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to murder in June 2022, the jury was told on Monday.
He is expected to give evidence during the four-week trial which continues before justice Martin Burns.
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