In short:
Robert Crawford is accused of murdering his wife Frances and staging an accident.
asserted
Crawford → accuse → accident
The jury has been shown text messages the couple sent each other before her death.
asserted
couple → show → death
Mr Crawford texted his wife saying he missed her hours before she died.
asserted
she → texte → her
A former RAAF pilot told his wife "I miss you" several hours before he allegedly killed her and staged her death as an accident in Southern Queensland, a jury has heard.
uncertain
jury → tell → Queensland
Robert Crawford has pleaded not guilty to the murder of 49-year-old Frances Crawford in July 2024.
Prosecutors allege Mr Crawford caused her death, before manipulating the scene to appear she died in a ride-on lawn mower accident.
asserted
she → plead → accident
The jury has already heard at the time of Ms Crawford's death, Mr and Ms Crawford had been trialling a reconciliation period following a separation.
asserted
Crawford → hear → separation
In mid-2023, Mr Crawford left their Upper Lockyer home after Ms Crawford discovered more occasions of infidelity by her previously unfaithful husband, the jury heard.
asserted
jury → leave → husband
On Thursday, the jury was shown months of messages exchanged between the pair before she died, in which they discussed numerous things.
asserted
they → show → things
At times Ms Crawford described being unhappy with her husband's lack of effort to repair their relationship, and brought up his past cheating, but on other occasions they shared loving messages.
asserted
they → describe → messages
Both Mr and Ms Crawford apologised to each other in some of the messages and spoke about their commitment to moving forward together.
On one occasion in the month before she died, Ms Crawford said to Mr Crawford in a message that she was in a "marriage by neglect", as he had failed to stay in contact with her every three hours.
asserted
he → apologise → her
Two weeks before his wife's death, the jury heard Mr Crawford returned from a work trip overseas and messaged Mrs Crawford to say "I love you" and "look forward to giving you big hugs when I get home".
asserted
I → hear → hugs
Around this time, the couple also discussed in the messages a planned upcoming trip together to the snow which had been booked for August by Mr Crawford.
asserted
which → discuss → Crawford
The jury has already heard the couple were in counselling and Ms Crawford wanted Mr Crawford to abide by certain rules, including undergoing regular polygraph tests.
asserted
Crawford → hear → tests
In the days before his wife's death, Mr Crawford made a booking to take another test in the following weeks, the jury heard.
asserted
jury → make → weeks
At this time, Ms Crawford expressed her discontent with Mr Crawford about not organising annual leave for a counselling session, and told him to "own your crap".
asserted
Crawford → express → crap
Jury shown text messages from day of wife's death
The jury has already heard the weekend before Ms Crawford's death, the couple went on a trip to Kingscliff.
asserted
couple → show → Kingscliff
On the following Monday morning, Mr Crawford messaged his wife and thanked her for "a good weekend away".
asserted
Crawford → follow → weekend
Later in the day, Mr Crawford messaged to say, "Hey Franny guess what?"
asserted
Crawford → message → what
"I miss you," he then messaged.
asserted
he → miss → you
The jury has already heard Mr Crawford told police after getting home from work he spent time with his wife, before going to their bedroom to do some work.
asserted
he → hear → work
Text messages sent between the couple's phones later that night were also shown to the jury, which prosecutors allege were sent by Mr Crawford to aid his story about how she died.
asserted
she → send → story
At 11:21pm a message was sent to Mr Crawford's phone from Ms Crawford's which said "hey are you going to put mower away soon?"
asserted
you → send → mower
Mr Crawford responded at 11:24pm saying "yeah" and explained he was dealing with a work issue.
One minute later, he said in a message, "just give me a sec".
asserted
he → respond → sec
At 11:26pm he wrote "you can just turn sprinklers off if easier too".
asserted
you → write → sprinklers
About an hour later Mr Crawford sent his wife two messages saying he was going to bed and said "stop watching Korean Netflix and come to bed".
asserted
he → send → bed
In his final message to his wife's phone, Mr Crawford said "hey I'm getting really sleepy".
asserted
I → say → phone
The jury heard the final three messages sent by Mr Crawford were not registered as being opened on Ms Crawford's phone until the following morning when police were looking through it.
asserted
police → hear → it
The trial continues.
asserted
trial → continue → ?
The Aporia
