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News.com.au
16-05-2025
- News.com.au
‘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 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.'
Daily Mail
10-05-2025
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Read the text messages of Air Force pilot Robert Crawford accused of murdering his mum-of three wife and then faking lawnmower horror - as family friend breaks her silence to slam Queensland court's decision to FREE him on bail
A friend of the mother-of-three allegedly murdered by her air force pilot husband - who is then accused of staging her death as a lawnmower accident - has broken her silence on behalf of the victim's children after he was freed on bail. Psychologist Frances Elizabeth Crawford was found dead at their rural Upper Lockyer home, 100km west of Brisbane, in the early hours of July 30, 2024. Squadron Leader Robert John Crawford, 47, was arrested around 10 weeks later in October and charged with his wife's murder and interfering with her corpse. Ms Crawford was found at the base of a rock wall next to a ride-on lawnmower with fatal head and neck injuries. Police allege Crawford strangled his wife, then used her phone to send fake messages before staging her fatal accident. He was remanded in custody after he was initially charged but seven months later, Justice Frances Williams granted Crawford bail and freed hi on May 2. The move that has outraged friends and family of Ms Crawford, said her close friend Suzanne Duffy. 'To say the family are angry is an understatement,' she said. 'The grandfather of Frances Crawford's children put up $250,000 for her alleged murderer's bail.' In multiple comments online, Ms Duffy slammed the decision to allow Crawford to be released back into the community ahead of his trial. 'The Supreme Court judge found for the defendant, granting him bail, having spent time behind bars since October last year waiting for court proceedings to take place,' she added. During the bail application Crawford's lawyer Saul Holt said there was no conclusive evidence to support the prosecution's claim that his client strangled his wife in a state of 'murderous rage'. Mr Holt told the court Crawford arrived home from his RAAF Amberley base, played piano and ate dinner with his wife before they 'read the Bible,' and 'played games.' Around 8:30pm, Crawford said they showered together, then watched television when his wife asked him to move the mower before the sprinklers came on. 'I told Frances that I would move it later,' he said in his statement. Crawford says the last time he saw his wife alive was while they were 'snuggling,' on the sofa under a heated blanket. However, prosecutor Chris Cook alleged in court that she was strangled in her home's en suite bathroom, leaving behind her blood and that of her husband. Mr Cook told the court Ms Crawford was carried outside and placed at the scene of a ride-on lawnmower accident at the bottom of a retaining wall. He said the forensic report favoured strangulation as the cause of death rather than pressure from the lawnmower's steering wheel. The prosecution allege Ms Crawford's mobile phone sent a message to her husband at 11:21pm on the Signal app, asking: 'Hey, are you going to put the mower away soon?' Mr Crawford replied: 'Yea just doing SDO stuff still' He then sent two follow up messages saying, 'Just give me a sec' and 'You can just turn the sprinklers off if easier too xx', according to court documents. At 12:28am, Mr Crawford sent another Signal message to his wife, saying: 'Hey I'm finished with my revision study stuff, I'm brushing teeth and going to bed soon. Are you coming?', according to the documents. He allegedly sent a follow up message at 12:30am saying 'Helllloooo? Xx Stop watching Korean Netflix and come to bed haha'. Mr Cook claimed Crawford sent those messages from her phone to himself. 'This allows him an extended amount of time to manipulate the scene because he doesn't call the police until several hours later,' he told the court. Crawford called Triple-0 at 3.37am, saying he had discovered his wife's body, the court was told. Mr Cook said Crawford's statement about his wife going out to move the lawnmower at such an hour was fanciful. 'This is a middle-aged woman going out in the middle of the night with no jacket in a very cold winter. Her family said she would not do that,' Mr Cook said. Mr Cook said Crawford was a 'master manipulator' who had caused his wife to seek a protective order from police as she 'felt very unsafe'. The court also heard that the pair had a troubled relationship after Crawford's previous infidelity and that his wife was planning to leave him. The court was told the couple's three adult children are estranged from Crawford who they accuse of being abusive, explosive and violent, and they grew up walking on eggshells. Ms Duffy has now set up a GoFundMe for the Crawfords' children which has raised $24,447 towards its target of $100,000. 'The children of Frances are pleading for the public to help them by supporting their GoFundMe with ongoing support for mental healthcare, and other costs to help them re-establishing their young lives, she said. 'The plea for your support is desperate and urgent.'
ABC News
08-05-2025
- ABC News
Court documents reveal timeline before RAAF pilot Robert Crawford allegedly murdered wife
A tragic late-night accident or something far more sinister? The latter is what prosecutors are set to argue in the case against Robert Crawford, whose accused of murdering his wife and interfering with her body last year. Frances Crawford, 49, was found at the base of a rock wall next to a ride on lawn mower with fatal head and neck injuries at their Upper Lockyer property west of Brisbane in July 2024. The 47-year-old pilot, who has not entered a plea but is contesting the charges, was granted bail last week. Supreme Court judge Justice Frances Williams determined there were parts of the crown's evidence against him that were "contestable', and he was not a risk of failing to appear in court. For the first time since his arrest in October 2024, it can be revealed exactly what Mr Crawford says happened the night his wife died. In court documents filed as part of his bail application, a 10-page witness statement details Mr Crawford's version of events on Monday July 29, 2024. After leaving work at the Amberley RAAF base, Mr Crawford said he arrived at the couple's house about 6pm where Mrs Crawford was making a curry for dinner. "I gave her a big hug when I got home," his statement said. "I remember sneaking some of the uncooked veggies … She had a bit of a go about it at me in a joking way." Mr Crawford said he then played some piano in the music room, where he noticed the ride on lawn mower battery was charging and making a "weird fan noise". He said he was having issues with the battery not charging and had been trying to test it when it was time to come in for dinner. He said he left the mower out of the shed because he planned to take the next day off and "was going to do a bit of mowing". Mr Crawford said they had owned the mower for two or three years, but Ms Crawford had only ever used it twice as she "struggled to operate it properly". "If the throttle is turned up and it is placed in gear, it can take off quite quickly," he said in his statement. He said he went inside to eat with his wife about 6:30pm, and the pair read the bible together, which was "our normal routine". About 8:30pm Mr Crawford said the couple showered together, then watched television. Ms Crawford asked him to move the lawnmower before the sprinkler system turned on. "I told Frances that I would move it later," he said in his statement. He said he was trying to review study notes but was "struggling to concentrate" so went to the couple's bedroom to "study in peace". "It was around this time that I received one, possibly two work related phone calls," he said in his statement. "I think I went out and spoke with Frances in the living room about this." He said he believed that interaction, which was about 9:45pm, was the last time he saw his wife. "We were just snuggling on the couch, sharing a heated blanket," he said in his statement. Mr Crawford said he would generally be in bed by 10pm, however "last night it seemed like I was up much later than that". He said he made a work call and maybe studied some more. He then said he sent his wife, who he described as a "night-owl", a message on Signal saying he was going to bed. "It is not uncommon for us to message each other while we are both in the house," he said in his statement. "We had already said goodnight, so I did not feel the need to go and see her in person to tell her this." Mr Crawford said he was "a heavy sleeper" and woke up later to find Ms Crawford was not in their bed. "I started calling her name, but there was no reply," he said in his statement. He then said he went outside and saw the lawn mower had been moved and found it "down the embankment, lying on its side". He said he immediately climbed down and tried to move the mower off her. "I remember that on occasions where I was able to lift it a little, it was being placed back down with the steering wheel hitting her chin." Mr Crawford said he eventually managed to pull her out from underneath. "Frances was completely unresponsive and never at any stage gained consciousness," he said in his statement. He said he had weak telephone reception and had to climb back up the rock wall to call triple-0 before attempting to resuscitate her. "I told the guy on the phone that she was really cold … I took off my jacket and placed it over her while I continued with compressions," he said. Mr Crawford said not long after paramedics arrived, they told him, "She was gone". His police statement has been described by prosecutors in their written outline of submissions as "demonstrably false". During his bail hearing last month, it was alleged by the crown that Mr Crawford strangled his wife to death, then sent messages to himself from her phone and manipulated the scene. He is then accused of fabricating a "fanciful" story that she died by accident. It is alleged the killing stemmed from an argument about their marriage. The bail hearing heard Mr Crawford had been unfaithful for a decade and the couple had separated in mid-2023 for about six months. Although they reconciled in January 2024, the bail hearing heard they were only living together for a probationary period, which was due to expire in July. In written submissions by the prosecution, it's alleged "the relationship had not recovered" and Ms Crawford was set to leave her husband for the "final time". "This angered Mr Crawford as he stood to lose financially and would likely be required to leave the family home again," the submissions alleged. The written submissions alleged witness affidavits, notes on Ms Crawford's phone, and statements from the couple's children painted Mr Crawford as "a domineering, abusive and aggressive man over a long period of time". In his police witness statement, Mr Crawford admitted at the time of his wife's death the couple were still "having problems" but they were "trying to fix these issues". "I am not proud of these things and embarrassed by my actions," he said in his statement. He said at times he felt they would "take two steps forward and one step back" but he believed they were "moving in the right direction". "We will be somewhere doing something positive … then all of a sudden, something will happen, or something will be said that leads Frances to trigger about my previous actions," he said in his statement. He said this had happened the weekend before Ms Crawford died, on a night away at Kingscliff, but said they had gotten passed it. "I listened to her and then apologised … We then had a hug and a kiss before we moved on," he said in his statement. Mr Crawford ended his statement by telling investigators he had even changed his work roster so he could spend more time with his wife. The prosecution's case focuses on alleged forensic inconsistencies and mobile phone data it alleges contradicts Mr Crawford's claims he was asleep. A document produced by the crown detailing a timeline of the couple's alleged movements and communication, based on data from their mobile phones and the home virtual assistance system, formed part of the bail documentation. According to the document, it showed Ms Crawford took a call from one of her sons at 6:30pm and then sent him a photograph at 7:44pm. More than an hour later Mr Crawford's voice is recognised making the audio command "Alexa, how do you spell 'Axle'", according to the document. Throughout the night, the document alleged Mr Crawford received calls from colleagues, and messages about a work issue. At 11:21pm, the crown alleged Ms Crawford's handset sent a message via Signal to her husband's handset saying "Hey, are you going to put the mower away soon?". Mr Crawford replied, "Yea just doing SDO stuff still" and then sent two follow up messages saying, "Just give me a sec" and "You can just turn the sprinklers off if easier too xx", according to the document. There were no further replies from Ms Crawford's handset, but the document alleged her husband's messages were read within seconds of being delivered. At 12:28am Mr Crawford sent another Signal message to his wife saying "Hey I'm finished with my revision study stuff, I'm brushing teeth and going to bed soon. Are you coming?", according to the document. He allegedly sent a follow up message at 12:30am saying "Helllloooo? Xx stop watching Korean Netflix and come to bed haha". The document alleged the messages were not read until next morning at 7:03am. The crown alleged at 12:31am Ms Crawford's handset recorded 20 steps being taken, which is the final movement recorded until emergency services arrived. Four minutes later Mr Crawford sent a final message to Ms Crawford saying, "Hey I'm getting really sleepy", which data shows was also read on her handset the next morning, according to the document. The document alleged between 12:44am and 2:35am Mr Crawford's handset was recorded several times being unlocked and at times using the Signal app. The crown alleged in its timeline that at 3am Mr Crawford's Garmin Connect Application was activated, and 15 minutes later 537 steps were recorded. His handset was recorded unlocking several times between 3:20am and 3:28am and this was when it was last recorded using the Signal app, according to the crown's timeline. According to the document, at 3:30am his Garmin Connect Application recorded 974 steps. Seven minutes later Mr Crawford made the call to emergency services. None of the evidence submitted in the bail hearing, or the documents as part of the prosecution's case against Mr Crawford, has been tested. A committal hearing has been set down for three days in October where it is expected his defence team will cross examine witnesses. Until then Mr Crawford remains on bail under strict conditions.
