Drug addiction, armed robbery and fraud behind Crabtree killings, police allege
Updated
A Gold Coast mother accused of killing two of her children, allegedly after years of forcing prescription medications on them, orchestrated her son's armed robbery of a pharmacy to feed his painkiller addiction, police say.
Investigators will allege Maree Crabtree exercised control over her children for many years by administering a variety of prescription medications, which resulted in an array of health and developmental problems.
Yesterday, Ms Crabtree was arrested in Brisbane and charged with murdering her son Jonathan, 26, last year, and murdering her daughter Erin in September 2012, and was also arrested over a string of other fraud and robbery charges.
The charges also relate to a surviving daughter, allegedly tortured between 2010 and 2017.
The case has been described by senior police as one of the most bizarre in their experience.
Detective Inspector Mark Thompson said it had been a "particularly difficult" investigation.
"The deaths themselves we will be alleging were financially motivated," he said.
The murder and financial fraud charges in regard to Ms Crabtree's alleged attempts to pocket almost $1 million have come after an investigation that began more than a year ago.
At the time of his death on July 18 last year, Jonathan was still facing a charge of violent armed robbery.
Police will allege he committed the robbery at the behest of his mother.
Ms Crabtree was yesterday charged with the 2015 robbery of a Southport chemist.
The robbery case returned to the Southport Magistrates Court weeks after Jonathan's death, when prosecutors said they had no evidence to offer.
During an initial hearing in 2015, Jonathan's lawyer Mollie Roper has confirmed to the ABC she told the court her client had developed an addiction to the painkiller Tramadol.
Jonathan was accused of demanding Tramadol in the pharmacy robbery and wounding a woman with a knife.
According to police, Jonathan had also tried to take his own life in a car crash in 2009.
Police unsuccessfully opposed his release on bail, citing concerns for his welfare and previous suicide attempts, including accounts from his mother that he had been revived after being close to death.
According to a Courier Mail report in 2015, the court was told Jonathan subsequently overdosed and was taken to hospital, with police saying a suicide note had been left.
In 2012, investigators initially considered the death of Erin a suicide, but became suspicious before the matter was finalised by the coroner.
The ABC understands police will allege the murder charges relate to both children being given various forms of prescription medication.
Inspector Thompson said police would allege the deaths of Erin and Jonathan were "premeditated and calculated, financially driven crimes".
"The health and wellbeing of these children we believe were impacted because of the guidance the children have received from their matriarch — their mother — and the family dynamic was harmful to those children," he said.
Detectives preparing a report for the coroner over Erin's 2012 death became suspicious after Jonathan's death, he said.
"Indications from what we knew about both matters we decided to join them as one further investigation once that initial review had been done," he said.
"The investigation into the first matter never stopped — we hadn't ruled it as non-suspicious, we hadn't parked it and walked away from it at all, it was still an ongoing matter."
Court documents describe Maree Crabtree as unemployed and living at a unit in a private housing estate in Maudsland.
Her late son and surviving daughter are listed as the owners, property searches show.
It was bought for about $300,000 in July 2013, during the period that police allege Maree Crabtree committed a half-million-dollar insurance fraud.
A lawyer for Ms Crabtree has said she will "vigorously defend the charges".
Investigators are seeking to speak with others who may have had contact with family over the years, including when they lived in New South Wales.
Police negotiated with the Office of the Adult Guardian for the surviving daughter to be taken into care, citing concern for her wellbeing.
They will allege her developmental and health issues are linked to the long-term administering of medication by her mother.
Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, child-abuse, fraud-and-corporate-crime, drug-offences, brisbane-4000, southport-4215
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