A woman was “exterminated” by her housemates and her body dumped in bushland following allegations she was stealing from them, a jury has heard.
Donna Louise Howe was reported missing by her daughter a month after she was last seen on Mother’s Day 2022 at Caboolture.
The 57-year-old’s skeletal remains were later found along a four-wheel-drive track in the Glass House Mountains.
Clinton Travis Oliver and Braydon Franklin have pleaded not guilty in Brisbane Supreme Court to the murder of Ms Howe on May 8 after she returned from dinner.
Ms Howe’s former housemate Chelsea Butterworth testified at a murder trial on Wednesday that Oliver, her partner at the time, had discussed confronting the alleged victim.
Oliver had said he was going to tie up Ms Howe following growing animosity in the house over valuables and a bank card going missing.
“I left the house as there was going to be a confrontation,” Ms Butterworth said.
The jury heard Ms Butterworth went to a pub on the night of May 8 to play poker machines and received a phone call from Oliver.
“He had said she had been exterminated,” Ms Butterworth said.
“I can’t remember if he used (Ms Howe’s) name.”
Oliver and Franklin have both pleaded guilty to mistreatment of a corpse by dousing Ms Howe’s body in petrol and setting it alight.
Ms Butterworth said she never saw or heard from Ms Howe again after that day.
The jury heard Ms Butterworth returned to the house and found Oliver and Franklin going through everything in Ms Howe’s bedroom.
Ms Butterworth agreed with crown prosecutor Nathan Crane that she had pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to Ms Howe’s death.
The jury heard Ms Butterworth received a reduced sentence in return for her testimony.
Oliver’s barrister John Cook accused Ms Butterworth of lying about the phone call with his client about Ms Howe being “exterminated”.
“I’m not making it up,” she said.
Ms Butterworth said she did not include details of the phone call in her initial statement to police because she did not know Oliver had already been arrested.
“I was afraid of him,” Ms Butterworth said.
Mr Cook brought up Ms Butterworth’s prior record of fraud and dishonesty and asked if she was a “convicted liar”.
“No,” she said.
Ms Butterworth said she was taking up to a gram of methamphetamine a day at the time of Ms Howe’s death.
Under questioning from Franklin’s barrister Damian Walsh, Ms Butterworth said she did not actually see his client turn over everything in Ms Howe’s room.
“Mr Oliver told you he was responsible for the death and nobody else?” Mr Walsh said.
“Yes,” Ms Butterworth said.
The trial continues before Justice Martin Burns.
