Disturbing threat Charlise Mutten’s mother made after she discovered her partner was having an affair

Charlise Mutten’s mother sent a text message to her daughter’s alleged killer saying she was going to “wreak her own neck” and that she “didn’t want to lose her daughter to him” after she found out he was cheating, so told a jury.

The day after her daughter was reportedly shot twice, once in the face and lower back, Kallista Mutten sent a message to her then-fiancé and alleged killer Justin Stein.

‘I’ll grab my daughter and take her to my brother. I’m not losing her because of you. I’m so stupid,” was read at 4:11 am.

She would spend the next few days scouring bushland around her partner’s property at Mount Wilson in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, before Charlise’s body was found on January 18, 2022.

Stein, 33, is on trial in the NSW Supreme Court in Parramatta after pleading not guilty to murder but admitting disposing of the nine-year-old’s body.

Charlise Muteen, 9, (pictured) lived with her grandparents in Tweed Heads in northern NSW but had been visiting her mother and Mr Stein over the summer holidays and was looking forward to the trip

The girl was visiting her mother and Mr Stein during the school holidays and spent her time in Sydney, split between Mr Stein’s family property at Mount Wilson, where she was reportedly shot and killed, and at a caravan park called the Riviera Ski Gardens in Lower Portland, about 1.5 hours away.

While Detective Bradley Gardiner was still in the witness box, the jury on Thursday was read a raft of messages that Mrs Mutten sent after she found out her then fiancé was cheating on her.

On January 11, 2022, Crown prosecutor Ken McKay SC told the jury that Charlise had gone from the caravan park to Mount Wilson with Mr Stein, while Ms Mutten stayed behind.

Mr McKay claims Mr Stein was the ‘last person’ to see Charlise and had the opportunity to kill her between 7.16pm on January 11 and 10.06am on January 12.

The jury was told that Mr Stein later went to collect Mrs Mutten from the caravan park on January 12, with the mother under the impression that Charlise was unwell and being cared for at the Mount Wilson site.

When they arrived at the house at 8.44pm and discovered Charlise was not there, Mrs Mutten called two local hospitals to try to locate her daughter before the couple went to sleep.

During the night the jury was told Ms Mutten searched Mr Stein’s phone and saw he had visited adult dating sites and cheated on her, causing her ‘distress’.

At 3:39 a.m., Ms. Mutten sent a message calling Mr. Stein a “liar and cheater.”

The text continued: ‘Now I’ve lost my daughter and I’m going to kill myself, I’m so stupid.’

It is alleged that Justin Stein (pictured) shot Charlise twice: once in the face and once in her lower back

Fifteen minutes later the jury was told that Ms Mutten had taken her partner’s car and driven to a local campsite to ‘collect the emotions and pray she comes back’ before sending another text to the accused killer .

‘I’ll grab my daughter and take her to my brother. I’m not losing her because of you. “I’m so stupid,” it said.

She also sent a message to a friend saying Mr Stein was cheating and “took the hit” before explaining that he had left her daughter with someone and she was “missing now”.

Mrs. Mutten told the friend that she had read Mr. Stein’s phone.

“I don’t want to go to the police because then I will lose her,” Ms. Mutten wrote.

“I’m devo and now my daughter is missing.”

She returned to the Mount Wilson estate at about 5.47am and sent a message to Mr Stein saying: ‘I just want my daughter’.

The jury was told that a ‘confrontation’ took place between the couple at the house before Ms Mutten took off again in his car, prompting Mr Stein to leave eight voicemails on her phone demanding she vehicle returned.

Charlise’s mother, Kallista Mutten (pictured), texted her fiancé saying she didn’t want to lose her daughter ‘because of you’, court heard

Kallista Mutten (photo) only called the police two days after her daughter went missing, the court heard

“If you don’t bring it back, I’m going to fucking hurt you and everyone else, and I’m going to tell the police that you’re the one who took your daughter so they’ll bring back my fucking king car,” the recording, which was released for the jury was played.

The jury heard another voicemail in which Mr Stein said: ‘I’ve got my f***ing guns and I’m going to kill you now, and I’m f*cking serious, you f**king *bought me for the last time… you did this to Charlise to fuck me, aren’t I, I’m going to kill you.’

In another message, Mr. Stein tells his then-fiancée that he is “doing the right thing” by “taking care of” her before saying she is “going down.”

Mrs Mutten did not report her daughter missing until 8.12am on January 14, when the jury heard her triple-0 call, during which she sobbed and told police she had been looking for Charlise in bushland.

“I’m sorry, I have to report my daughter missing… she’s nine,” Mrs. Mutten tells the officer in tears.

Charlise’s body was found in a barrel on an embankment near the Colo River, four days after her mother reported her missing.

After his arrest in January 2022, Mr Stein denied murdering Charlise in an interview with a Corrective Services officer, but said he “was nearby when Kallista Mutten shot and killed the girl”, the jury heard.

A toxicology report revealed that Charlise had tested positive for Mr. Stein’s schizophrenia medication.

The trial continues before Judge Helen Wilson.