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Authorities tasked with removing Bruce Saunders’ mutilated remains from a woodchipper might have thought the Australian’s death was the result of a grisly accident. According to prosecutors, that’s exactly what his three alleged killers intended.
Saunders’ ex-partner, Sharon Graham, 61, and Gregory Lee Roser, 63, have both pleaded not guilty to charges of murder over Saunders’ horrendous death at a Queensland property in northeastern Australia in November 2017. The pair—who are being tried separately for the 54-year-old’s alleged killing—were part of a conspiracy with another man, Peter Koenig, to claim Saunders’ $500,000 life insurance policy, a court heard.
Jurors in the case have been shown police footage of Saunders’ legs protruding from the woodchipper at the property near Gympie after he’d been helping to clear trees with Roser and Koenig, The Guardian reports. Koenig pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to murder in June, the court heard, saying he’d been part of a months-long plot to kill Saunders.