‘Like the mower's rolled': Alleged triple-0 transcript of pilot charged with wife's murder
An air force pilot charged with the murder of his wife – before allegedly staging it to look like she had an accident on their ride-on mower – allegedly claimed in his triple-0 call that the mower had 'rolled' and he had to 'pull it off' his wife while asking for an ambulance 'ASAP'.
The bombshell transcript of the emergency call made by Robert John Crawford on the night his wife Frances was found dead at their Upper Lockyer property in July 2024 can be detailed after the release of court documents, which include an alleged timeline of texts between the RAAF pilot and his wife in addition to several affidavits and an expert biomedical engineering report.
The release of the documents follows Crawford, 47, successfully applying for bail in the Supreme Court in early May.
He will reside at the same property, report daily to police and not go within 500m of international airport terminals or enter any airfield due to his status as an RAAF pilot while his case continues to track through the courts.
Police arrested and charged Mr Crawford with one count each of murder and misconduct with a corpse in October last year.
His wife's body was found at the base of a retaining wall at their property, located west of Brisbane, on the night of July 30, 2024 near a ride-on mower.
It is alleged Mr Crawford flew into a 'murderous rage' and fatally strangled his wife following an argument between the pair on the night of July 29.
'Mr Crawford then spent a significant amount of time manipulating their property so that it appeared that Ms Crawford had died by misadventure while outside on a ride-on mower in her pyjamas in the middle of a cold winter's night,' the Crown alleges in court documents, obtained by NewsWire.
'Once he was done, he called triple-0.'
A transcript of that triple-0 call, made at 3.47am on July 30, allegedly details Crawford requesting an ambulance after finding his wife.
After being asked what happened, he allegedly tells the call taker: 'I don't know. I just found her. She's off the (wall i/a ledge) … like the mower's rolled and she's, I … I dunno what she's doing?'
The call taker clarifies if the mower had rolled on Ms Crawford, and Mr Crawford allegedly replies: 'Yeah … yeah … I'm just, I'm trying to … I had to pull it off and like … I think she's still OK … I think, but I need an ambulance ASAP.'
Paramedics attended at 4.am and found Ms Crawford at the bottom of a rock retaining wall, with a ride-on mower in proximity,
In his own statement to police, Mr Crawford states he arrived home at 6pm the night before his wife's death to find her making a chicken curry for dinner.
He claims he last saw her 'sometime around 9.45pm' while they were 'snuggling on the couch, sharing a heated blanket' while watching TV.
'I woke up sometime in the middle of the night and reached over in bed to grab her hand. I realised she was not in bed,' Mr Crawford claims in his statement.
He claims he searched the house and went out to the back patio, finding his wife under the mower when he looked over the back rock ledge.
Messages allegedly exchanged between the pair on the encrypted messaging app Signal have also been released – with Ms Crawford allegedly sending him a message at 11.21pm: 'Hey are you going to put the mower away soon?'
Crawford is alleged to have replied at 11.25pm: 'Just give me a sec', before replying a minute later: 'You can just turn the sprinklers off if easier too xx'.
Later that night, Crawford is alleged to have messaged his wife: 'Hey I'm finished with my revision study stuff, I'm brushing teeth and going to bed soon. Are you coming?'
He allegedly follows up at 12.30am with: 'Helllloooo? Xx stop watching Korean Netflix and come to bed haha', and again at 12.35am: 'Hey I'm getting really sleepy.'
But police have cast doubt on Crawford's version of events – pointing to his phone data allegedly showing 'significant' activity through the night, including thousands of steps allegedly recorded on his Garmin watch.
'Improbable': Alleged major detail in expert's report
An autopsy concluded Ms Crawford died from neck and head injuries, but an expert biomechanical report prepared for the Crown alleged it was 'most improbable' that an accident with the ride-on mower resulted in the head injury at the top of the retaining wall and Ms Crawford's body coming to rest 1.8m from the wall.
Chips and scraping on the rock wall from the undercarriage of the mower, as well as damage to weeds in the area, allegedly suggest the mower progressed over and down the retaining wall in a 'wheels down' manner, the biomechanical report states.
'The steep gradient of the retaining wall (approximately 60 degrees from horizontal) indicates that sideways or angled travel of the mower down the slope would not have been possible without the mower rolling over, a scenario that appears inconsistent with the scrape marks on the rocks or damage to the mower,' the report states.
The report found no evidence supporting Ms Crawford being 'caught' and forcefully carried over the slope by the mower.
It continued by saying a fall event was 'conceivable' – possibly from Ms Crawford falling off the mower – but noted the mower's centre of mass was closer to the retaining wall than hers.
'The neck injuries reported at the time of death, including hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage fracture, are very rare as far as traumatic fractures are concerned,' the report states.
'It is unlikely that impact forces associated with the mower could explain the observed neck pathology.'
A botanical expert determined Ms Crawford's Ugg boots 'were not worn on the lawn outside the house' on the night of July 29 due to the absence of grass clippings on the tread and in the grooves of the boot.
Her left Ugg boot was still on her body, while the right one was found adjacent to her body.
A 20cm piece of grass was found on her right sock, between her big and second toe, according to the report.
'It is highly unlikely the deceased would have put her right sock on with a flowering grass inflorescence between her toes or a 20cm piece of grass being present in her sock before she put (it) on,' the report writer determined.
The Crown alleges Ms Crawford was not actually walking around in her Ugg boots at the time and a 'reasonable inference open' is that Mr Crawford 'put socks and Ugg boots on his dead or dying wife' after positioning her outside.
However, Mr Crawford's defence team says the Crown case is not strong and the conclusions in the biomechanical report 'are, at best for the Crown, highly contestable'.
Barrister Saul Holt KC notes the autopsy report does not rule out a scenario 'the deceased was reversing the lawnmower at night and fell from it'.
'The case against the applicant (Crawford) is not overwhelming, and indeed, it is positively contestable. (He) is motivated to defend the allegations against him,' Mr Holt writes in an affidavit.
Pilot 'abusive, manipulative', wife felt 'very unsafe'
In court documents, police detail the allegedly fraught relationship between Mr Crawford and his wife – marked by alleged infidelity over 10 years and accusations the air force pilot was 'abusive' and 'manipulative'.
The pair met at a Maroochydore church camp in 1996 before getting married two years later.
A Queensland Police court brief alleges Mr Crawford was 'financially motivated' and 'controlling' of his wife, who allegedly felt 'very unsafe'.
According to the brief, the couple's three children are 'estranged' from Mr Crawford and have described him as 'abusive, explosive, unpredictable, aggressive, controlling (and) manipulative' with 'violent outbursts' and that they 'grew up walking on eggshells … fearful of the defendant'.
The Crawfords separated for nine months in 2023 after his alleged extramarital relationships came to light.
By April 2024, the pair agreed to a three-month trial to try to repair their marriage; however, Ms Crawford was set to leave her husband 'for the final time' as the relationship had not recovered.
'This angered Mr Crawford as he stood to lose financially and would likely be required to leave the family home again,' the Crown alleges in court documents.
'Mr Crawford's frustration at his wife sent him into a murderous rage.'
In his statement, Mr Crawford acknowledges he had 'marital problems in the past' and was 'unfaithful on numerous occasions over the course of a 10 year period'.
'I am not proud of these things and embarrassed by my actions,' Mr Crawford states.
In the statement, he says he had continued to work on their marriage after moving back in and believed they were 'moving in the right direction … although it seems like we sometimes take two steps forward and one step back'.
Mr Crawford's legal team have indicated much of the evidence on the claimed infidelity will be contested.
Through an affidavit, a fellow pilot and friend of Mr Crawford says he is not aware of any affairs – noting Mr Crawford had mentioned he had an eHarmony account.
'He said that all the details of everything were discussed as part of his marriage counselling and that Frances was aware of everything,' the affidavit states.
'My experience is that Rob is genuinely a good person and has defined his whole live by his Christian values. If he did something like this, he would already have told someone. It would have destroyed him.'
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