FATAL LOVE QUADRANGLE: Man found mutilated in woodchipper murdered after getting caught in twisted affair
BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA: The death of 54-year-old Bruce Saunders was believed to be an industrial accident that took place near Gympie north of Brisbane in November 2017. Now the latest report suggests that 61-year-old Queensland woman, Sharon Graham, allegedly plotted his killing for six months while she convinced two other men involved in a “love quadrangle” to execute this killing.
According to DailyMail, crown prosecutor David Meredith told the jury on Monday, September 19, "All that was left of the body was the legs from about just above the knees down. It is not the prosecution’s case that he was killed by … the chipper. He was killed and put into the chipper to hide the fact that it was murder." Saunders was living with Graham but was “worth a great deal more” to her dead than alive, the prosecutor said.
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The unfolding of Saunders' murder
As per the report, at the beginning of the case, police treated Saunders’ death as an accident, until detectives received a tip-off, which led to three people being charged with murder in May 2018. While Peter John Koenig, 65, pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to murder in June 2022. He received a lesser sentence in return as he testified against his co-accused, Graham, and Gregory Lee Roser, 63.
The prosecutor said, "From a plan for Roser to break into Saunders’ house and kill him; to another plan to lie in wait for him [Saunders] somewhere on his way to work or at his place of work and shoot him; to what actually happened, the prosecution says, to kill him [Saunders] and make it look like an accident while tree-clearing." And added, "Sharon Graham asked him [Koenig] and Gregory Roser to murder Bruce Saunders, and Bruce Saunders was, in fact, murdered by Gregory Roser. Roser used an iron bar to hit Bruce Saunders on the head [multiple times] after they had finished work at the property and then his body goes into the woodchipper."
"This is a love quadrangle,” Meredith said while telling that Graham was living in a de facto relationship with Saunders but was in a relationship with Roser and may have also had “intimate relations” with Koenig, as per 7 News. "Because Peter Koenig, Gregory Roser and Bruce Saunders were all in love it seems ... at some stage with Sharon Graham," the prosecutor said.
Talking about the motive, Meredith said, “Sharon Graham had a powerful motive for wanting Bruce Saunders dead." A recording showed Graham calling the insurance company days after Saunders’ death about collecting the money was heard by the court. Saunders made a will and took a life policy in favor of Graham that was increased to $750K a week before his death, the court heard.
Following this, Roser and Graham, are on trial for the murder of “good-natured” Saunders. The trial is set to run for four weeks.