Strangled To Death With A Shoestring

[bloodrayne]

Court Hears Grisly Details Of Deaths

Australia - A Sunshine Coast court has been told how an accused double-murderer cradled one of his dying victims in his arms for three hours before finally strangling him with a shoelace because he could not stand his death throes any longer.

The victim was later found by police wrapped in bedding in his back yard – his hands tied behind his back with phone cord, the shoelace still around his neck and with both of his eyes removed.

In a videotaped interview with police, played during the first day of committal proceedings in the Maroochydore Magistrate's Court yesterday, alleged killer Andrew Frederick Smithers, 27, gave a graphic account of a night of drinking and drug-taking that culminated in a jealous outburst and then violence.

Smithers has been charged with the murder of Eudlo property owner Earl Watson, 51, as well as Natalie Adams, 48, who had rented a cabin at the Perrins Road address. Smithers and his de facto wife had been living in a tent at the same property.

Watson and Adams were popular members of the hinterland community, southwest of Nambour.

Watson was a keen photographer who was chronicling Eudlo's history and often helped disadvantaged people, while Adams had been a dancer.

In the taped on-scene interview with police recorded the morning after last year's March 16 killings, Smithers said that he and wife Judy, Adams and Watson had all been drinking and then taking marijuana since 10am the previous morning.

The mood changed that night when Judy became upset with Adams flirting with Smithers.

"She pushed Natalie and I sort of grabbed Judy and stopped her and Earl hit me on the forehead with a lump of wood," Smithers told police. "Everyone started to get violent towards one another."

Smithers said he remembered ending up with a knife in his hand with Natalie dead "and I panicked".

"I think I sliced her neck and stabbed her a few times . . . there was blood everywhere . . . we were slipping around and all wrestling and we were covered in blood and I think Earl copped it next. Earl got stabbed in the chest, back and neck, I think.

"I hit him over the head several times with this iron bar because he was screaming and I couldn't handle his screaming."

Smithers told police he had sat with Watson for three hours while he died "because he (Watson) didn't want to be left alone" and had asked that an ambulance not be called.

"He said he wanted me to get a pen and paper so he could change his will . . . and he asked me to bury him and put a marijuana plant on top of him.

"Towards the end he was very . . . not well, and I put a shoelace around his neck and finished him off as I couldn't see him like that. Although I did that, he was still my friend."

Smithers said he wrapped both bodies in sheets, doonas and pillows and dragged them into bush around the yard because he did not want Judy – who had run off during the violence – to see them.

He told police he tried to clean up "all the blood all over the place" and had called his father in Nowra – first to tell him what had happened and then to leave an answering machine message denying it.

Later he said the whole incident had seemed "like a bad dream".

Smithers has not been required to enter a plea to the charges and the committal is expected to continue today.