Woodchipper murder: Accused killer says ‘nasty’ woman online asked him to kill

Shortly after connecting online, Gregory Lee Roser said a woman he barely knew asked him to kill a man he hadn’t met.

Months later, Roser helped feed Bruce Saunders’ body into a wood chipper, a court has heard.

But Roser has told a Brisbane Supreme Court jury that he did not kill Mr Saunders, but instead points the finger at an “nasty, homicidal” woman and a man who supposedly has connections to the mafia.

Roser, 63, and Sharon Graham, 61, pleaded not guilty to murder after Saunders died in November 2017 while working on an estate north of Brisbane.

The Crown alleges that Graham asked Roser and another lover Peter Koenig to murder her ex-partner, Mr Saunders, 54, and make it look like an accident in an attempt to claim his $750,000 life insurance policy.

Images were shown to the jury of Mr Saunders’ legs sticking out of the chipper on the Goomboorian site at Gympie after felling trees with Roser and Koenig.

Roser agreed on Thursday that Graham had asked him to kill Mr Saunders shortly after an online meeting in March 2017.

“Because he pissed her off and he had a lot of money,” Roser said.

First, she wanted Saunders killed in the Nambour house he shared with Graham, Roser said.

He refused but wrote down Graham’s instructions on how to enter the house and the dates for doing so after raising her voice.

“I didn’t think she was serious at all,” Roser said.

In July 2017, Roser said Graham gave him a gun supplied by Koenig “out of the blue”.

“I took the (gun) from her to calm her down,” he said.

Graham had first planned that Mr Saunders would be shot by Roser on his way to or near his workplace, the court heard.

Roser said he again declined, but wrote down more notes, with Graham this time detailing Mr Saunders’ work schedule.

“Every time I said no to her (about killing Mr. Saunders), she ended up having a big bang, yelling and screaming and stuff,” he said.

Roser said he returned the gun, but Koenig and Graham began to pressure him to kill Saunders.

Roser said Koenig suggested suitable secluded spots for murder as the couple drove around, but he ruled them out.

He said the drive was one of the times Koenig claimed to have killed someone, laughing as he told him he had pushed someone into a meat grinder at an Adelaide abattoir.

Graham had also told him that Koenig had “dangerous criminal partners,” Roser said.

“She said that Peter had a mafia connection and that he knows people who … can get rid of you,” he told the court.

In mid-October 2017, Roser said Graham shared her plan to kill Mr Saunders while clearing a friend’s property, making it look like an accident, using the chipper.

On the last day of work, Roser said he was under pressure with Koenig telling him ‘we need to get rid of him’ and Graham demanding that he ‘hurry up and do the job’ in abusive texts.

Roser said he still refused and continued to work as the sun went down before hearing what he sounded like a “few lashes or gunshots,” thinking it was a falling branch.

He then saw Mr. Saunders slumped on the shredder as Koenig told him, ‘Well, it’s done now’ before agreeing to help feed the body into the machine.

“I thought if I didn’t do what he said, I’d end up like Bruce,” Roser said.

Mr. Saunders’ body went through the shredder in “one pass,” Roser said.

He said Koenig stopped the machine with Mr Saunders’ legs sticking out and told him ‘oh that should be enough’.

Graham has successfully applied for a separate trial.

Roser’s trial for Judge Martin Burns continues.