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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Tammy Shipley believed someone was out to hurt her. I thought someone was after me and I wanted to just be safe. She's put under 24-hour surveillance.
I tried to get in contact multiple times.
And then something strange happens. She just drank and drank and had something like 20 litres of pure water.
Ambulance emergency. I've got a woman unconscious.
Tammy's story. Search Background Briefing on ABC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts. ABC Listen. Podcasts, radio, news, music and more.
The story we've told about Marie Crabtree revolves around her children. Jonathan, the son who she was found not guilty of murdering, and Tara, the daughter who was a key witness in that trial. But until now, we couldn't tell you much about her third child, Erin. She died in 2012. Marie Crabtree had also been charged with her murder, a charge we can finally tell you all about.
I'm Stephen Stockwell. This is the case of Marie Crabtree.
The 59-year-old was accused of killing her son and staging it as a suicide.
In photos, Marie Crabtree smiled and posed with her children, but police allege she killed to receive life insurance payments. She allegedly told a friend, I want to put something in his drink so he won't be here. We will be alleging these are premeditated direct acts of murder.
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Chapter 2: What led to Maree Crabtree's murder charges?
So almost identical in terms of the allegations. Investigators accused Marie of giving her daughter, just like she was accused of giving Jonathan, a lethal dose of prescription pain medication. And then, yeah, leaving it to seem like she overdosed.
Yeah. And with her name popping up on the court list in relation to these charges, this is obviously something that has the potential to be a very big deal. We didn't know what was going to unfold when you got there. I mean, what happened when you got to court that morning?
So reviews are usually very procedural, really brief as well. So there's no real fanfare. So on this day late last week, there were multiple matters listed in the same courtroom. There was a little bit of waiting around.
Chapter 3: What details are known about Maree's daughter Erin?
The first thing I noticed is Marie herself wasn't there and that's not completely unusual. They don't usually need to appear at reviews. So she was represented by her lawyer and And the matter gets called after a little while of waiting and the DPP gets up and simply asks the judge for all of her remaining charges in the Supreme Court.
That was the alleged murder of Erin and some associated fraud charges to be completely discontinued.
That is a kind of a huge part of this story. You know, we mentioned Aaron briefly in one of our episodes when we were talking through the case of Marie Crabtree, but because this charge was hanging over and we weren't sure where it was up to, we couldn't go any deeper than that.
Talisa, you know, you mentioned that we had been waiting for this, but there was potential for this to kind of go other ways. What else may have happened on that day? Why didn't we know for sure this is what was going to go down?
Well, effectively straight after Marie was acquitted of her son's murder, her lawyer indicated that they were going to be making submissions to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and that they were pretty confident that the second murder charge would be finalised. Now, in legal terms, the word finalised doesn't always mean the charge will be dropped, so...
That can sort of translate to potentially there being a plea deal. There could have been a situation where she may have pleaded guilty to some downgraded charges in other murder cases. This often translates to a manslaughter guilty plea. It could also mean that things may still be progressing in the sense that they're trying to have the charges thrown out, but the DPP may not accept that.
So we weren't too sure if everything was going to come to a head on that review. We definitely knew we were going to hear something about the case. The whole point of a review is to get an update on where things are at pre-trial.
Mm-hmm.
It was sort of one of those things that, you know, people weren't directly saying it, but everyone knew that is what the defence were pointing to, that this charge was going to be dropped. So ultimately, that is what happened.
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Chapter 4: How did the court proceedings unfold for Maree Crabtree?
I mean, you have to remember there's so many different things that a jury has to take on board when it comes to a trial. We just talked about having to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. And in the case with Jonathan, it was put to the jury that, you know, he was a depressed, suicidal person. addict of pain medication.
So there was still a likelihood that he may have killed himself intentionally or accidentally. And in the case with his sister, Erin, there were some similarities there where she was also someone who had spoken about self-harm before and was also someone who was taking prescription pain medications for illnesses that she had. So
it was very likely that Marie would take the same, if not similar, defences to another trial.
Talisa, this seems so relevant to the story we have just told of Jonathan's death. You know, if you're thinking about this and we're telling the story of one child dying and the woman that we're talking about has also been charged with the murder of a second child.
I mean, why wasn't this something we could talk about when we were telling the story of Marie Crabtree being accused of Jonathan's death?
So what it comes down to is legal fairness. Marie was committed to trial on Erin's murder at the same time she was committed to trial for Jonathan's murder. And at one point, those two trials were severed, so we had to treat the two charges separately. We've already spoken about the fact that Marie has vigorously denied these allegations since the moment she was arrested.
During her son's murder trial, we obviously couldn't report that she was also facing another set of charges that were almost identical. Because that jury could have taken that to mean she must be guilty. It would have completely prejudiced those proceedings. And it should be no surprise she was intending to plead not guilty to Erin's murder as well.
So this was one of those things that could have also tainted a jury.
So this, look, it's a fascinating story. It's a kind of incredible development as well in the case of Marie Crabtree, you know, hearing that, you know, she had been charged with the murder of another one of her children, charges that have now been dropped as well. And of course, Marie Crabtree was found not guilty of the murder of Jonathan, her son as well. And the
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