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00:00it felt like it was from a horror movie you couldn't believe that it would happen here in
00:21southeast Queensland you kind of have a really awful feeling in the pit of your stomach what's
00:29inside the toolbox and there was a moment where the crane just brings up this toolbox just swinging
00:40in the air it's one of the most horrific crimes that we've covered to me this is pure evil
00:54this was a case that we thought was finished but it wasn't the murder convictions have been
01:06overturned on appeal
01:13so this is the track that detective tanks was led along by mr Tejada on the night of the 10th of
01:40February 2016 now if we're looking out this way as part of scrubby Creek area this is part of the
01:58water course that runs along Kingston Road towards where the toolbox was eventually deposited into the
02:03scrubby Creek good evening a mother of seven is among six people charged with murder over the
02:16killing of a man and woman at Logan a macabre end to a savage crime crane swings a tradies toolbox from
02:24the water it became a makeshift coffin for two people officers allege were killed in cold blood
02:31since that point in time it's consumed a lot of my life it's consumed a lot of detectives lives it's
02:40part of it something that has continued on since people being charged on the 10th of since 11th of
02:47february 2016 it has something that we've had to live and breathe through all the trials and it's still continuing today
02:56this is their final resting place it's not something we know make something off it's yeah it's a rather
03:16can be a little bit of a touchy subject especially for myself and some of the others as this is this
03:22is where two people met their end at the hands of some rather nasty people
03:29the scale of the toolbox murders was enormous there was nine defendants on various charges including
03:52torture manslaughter and murder it is without a doubt one of the biggest cases in living memory
04:01particularly in Australia this is a lengthy investigation and thousands and thousands of
04:12of text messages to be read how do you go through 83 000 text messages witnesses to be sought traveling
04:22to New Zealand to bring an accused back the crime scene it was massive things started to ramp up where
04:28the distinction was made we need to locate these people and arrest them before they leave or try to
04:34get out of the country they were held in custody they were going to be charged with murder and now the work
04:42begins you're drained you're trying to put through every piece of evidence you can put through and then be
04:54cross-examined on set evidence trying to remember anything that may or could be an issue for for the
05:07prosecution anything that a defense lawyer may try and not trip you up on but it's to try and negate
05:15their their clients capability in the in this in them in the murder of Cory Britton and Iliana Trescaru
05:21this case had very gory gruesome elements and even the judge when he was impaneling the jury warned them
05:38and said you will hear some things that will be hard to forget and said to them if you want to be excused
05:48you can no one did and it felt like it was from a horror movie you couldn't believe that it would
05:56happen here in southeast Queensland the nature of it it was hard to watch every night that's for sure
06:08the troubling aspect of this case is its protracted nature occasionally in fact more often than not
06:23murders occur on impulse spur of the moment pull person pulls out a gun or a knife these two people
06:30were kept for some period of time there was certainly sufficient time for any one of the people in
06:38the group to notify the place to secure their release this didn't happen I think it speaks to the power
06:50of peer group dynamics and people being enthralled by the leader and of course their judgment inevitably
06:58was impacted by the use of stimulant drugs such as ice which has a dramatic effect on people's judgment
07:04impulse control well so many players involved in this horrific homicides the two double homicides
07:15someone's going to break something's going to happen eventually down the track someone's going
07:20to tell somebody what happened maybe they can't live with their conscience they have to tell somebody
07:24get it off their chest there's always a weak link in any in any chain a witness has told a double murder
07:31trial he watched as two people were forced into a toolbox they just told them to get up and go and
07:36lay down in the box Corey did I remember when Tabita was trying to stop the lid from closing Stu was slashing
07:43at her forearms with the knife that he'd stabbed Corey with the court cases started with Leland Harrington
07:52he sings like a bird to police and just outlines everything Leland Harrington was a key crown witness in
08:03this case and he had so many different areas of involvement it was him who showed the photo to
08:09Stowe Daniels on his phone that Corey had text him it was his apartment the tab where this horrific
08:16incident all played out and then again it was him who had that moment with Uliana where she tried to
08:23escape and he called out for Daniels and the others to come back and she was coughing and choking on her
08:32own blood so that is just absolutely horrendous details to hear for anyone knowing that their
08:47families were in the courtroom hearing this evidence just really hit home
08:51Leland Harrington who rolled over and double-crossed the gang to police was convicted of deprivation of
09:03liberty and assault occasioning bodily harm for assisting police he got a suspended sentence and served no jail time
09:10it's not fair they think about that what she would have gone through the last moments of her life
09:20but I was you know at this still thought well Uliana's a strong person she would have fought
09:27and she did according to what's been reported and you know that gives a little bit of like at least she
09:38fought for the last moments of her life Uliana did you know and that's the feistiness in her
09:44there were a number of court proceedings that played out over quite a prolonged period of time
10:05but there was this real focus on the man that police allege was the ringleader the puppet master in all of
10:11this uh Stowe Daniels and his two enforcers Thropp and Tao
10:17three men found guilty of murdering Uliana Triscaro and Corey Breton have today been sentenced to life
10:27imprisoned Trent Thropp Stowe Daniels and Davy Tao were last week found guilty of torturing and stuffing
10:34the pair in a toolbox and dumping it in a Logan dam back in January 2016 in court today just a David
10:40Boddice describing their actions as completely lacking humanity they are despicable crimes involving
10:48senseless yet sadistic conduct perpetrated against two defenseless individuals
10:53throughout the court proceedings we did hear from Uliana Triscaro's mother she gave a very powerful
11:08victim impact statement showing how loved she was to her family she said things in court like
11:14what kind of mind is capable of thinking that is okay to do that to another human being
11:19my heart is literally broken you did that she also said that Uliana's children were asking for their
11:26mother every day you hear about these people as victims but this is when you really hear about them
11:35as people and hear about the impact they had on others lives we also heard during these court proceedings
11:41from the family of Corey Breton we heard from his partner Miranda and she said in court through a victim
11:48impact statement how do you tell a three-year-old that you're never going to be able to see your
11:52father again it's so brutal they are sitting meters away from the people that have been accused of killing their
12:05loved ones and they have to hear every gruesome detail when they're getting tortured you know tapes and
12:12zip tied to a couch getting beaten up flogged jammed into a toolbox the family members clearly were feeling
12:21that it was like they were going through the same experience and this is day after day after day you
12:27know this is facing really they are facing their own type of torture this time it was just happened to be in a
12:33courtroom and those are the moments that you just you just don't you don't really forget yeah you don't
12:40forget no amount of time served will ever bring Corey back to us my life is gone my daughter is gone
12:51maybe the God give you him more it was quite a great relief the families are very appreciative that the
13:01amount of work that went into preparing the court matters and the obviously they're not going to get
13:09their family members back but they saw it as justice being being served over the last five years we have
13:19not been able to properly grieve for Corey due to court proceedings now we have some sort of closure
13:27so it's not one of these ones where you win it you know you're punching the air it's high fives
13:38everywhere it's not like that at all in fact it's quite sad two people have lost their life and I don't
13:44believe it's a moment to be overjoyed people never recover from this type of crime and it's not just
13:55the loss of two loved ones it's the knowledge of how they died you would not be able to extricate yourself
14:06from those feelings
14:08this was an extremely complex court case to cover we had nine separate defendants on a range of charges
14:22varying charges from assault torture deprivation of liberty manslaughter and murder some of these
14:30defendants were being dealt with individually some were being dealt with together so the court proceedings
14:34to get through them all took a couple of years the leader stowe daniels charged with double murder and
14:44torture received a life sentence from the judge terangi tahiata who drove the ute with the toolbox to
14:51scrubby creek and later took police to the dumping ground got life for double murder and torture enforcer
14:58trent thropp who yelled time to die got life for double murder and torture henchman davy tayo also got
15:06life for double murder and torture tapuna mariri was jailed for torture and manslaughter webster latu guilty of
15:16two counts of manslaughter so too was mum of seven nagatuna mariette guilty of double manslaughter
15:23waylon walker was guilty of manslaughter
15:32this was a case everyone thought it was done and dusted over these men have been found guilty convicted sent to prison and then
15:41one of the men serving a life sentence for a shocking 2016 double homicide known as the toolbox murders
15:52is appealing his conviction a jury found tuarangi thomas tahiata guilty of the murders of luliana triscaru and cory breton
16:01tahiata today lodged an appeal in brisbane's supreme court arguing inadmissible evidence was placed before the jury
16:10resulting in a miscarriage of justice
16:12this was just shocking a shocking turn of events
16:18there are no winners in case like this it's no doubt stressful and no doubt the the families would be
16:27continuing to suffer as a result of that i miss her very much i'm so upset
16:33one of queen's anne's toolbox killers has lost an appeal against his double murder conviction
16:46tahiata's appeal contended that an off-camera confession should have been inadmissible during
16:52his trial but the court of appeal judges pointed out that he had also confessed on camera to police
17:04we felt relief but still very very sad and you know we shouldn't we should have never been in that
17:12situation i suppose no one should no one no one should ever go through that
17:16when we've had a guilty verdict it will help the victim's families move on about the family having
17:24closure that's the most we can bring to them so hopefully they now can move forward and move on
17:29with their lives one of the other players in this is natakuna mariette she was a friend of juliana and corey's
17:43natakuna used to come to our house and we would babysit her children me and juliana
17:49mariette went to this place to buy drugs and she discovered that juliana had ice secreted in her bra
18:00she took that ice from her and then became involved in this horrendous crime
18:04i find that extraordinary in terms of uh being friends she would have understood the impact
18:22on juliana's children by losing their mother as a mother herself and none of that appears to have
18:29been factored into her thinking judgment and conduct at that time it's the ultimate betrayal friends
18:38they were mothers who looked after each other's children how do you go from looking after each
18:44other's children to being part of the murder of that person the cleanup
18:52this was a friend who turned just like that and was able to be part of this murderous plot
19:10and not only that in the days afterwards she contacted juliana's family and lied and said she's fine
19:20they're fine that level of deception is beyond most of us
19:30how could she she was friends with juliana
19:34you know she hanged they hanged out both juliana and natakuna and their children
19:40that's you know how could you do that to your friend that's how could you be able to stand there and
19:46clean up a mess that you know for a fact that your friend was just there
19:55i can't understand how what went on with her mind in that regard
20:05it clearly speaks to the bonds of friendship being just an illusion in this case no empathy
20:11uh you would imagine that she might have thought about the impact on the children knowing their
20:17mother was going to be murdered in terms of her position as a mother of seven but that does not
20:23seem to come into play here juliana didn't deserve any of it it's a horrible horrible way to go
20:32it's not fair she just didn't serve it as a person she was a beautiful human being
20:50a mother of seven involved in the grisly deaths of a man and a woman whose bodies were found inside a
20:55toolbox in a logan creek is admitting to her part in the evil crime natakuna mariette pleading guilty
21:02to the pair's manslaughter she wasn't involved in the actual killings but she did assist by buying
21:08cleaning products a mop a bucket methylated spirits to clean the unit the judge told her
21:14she allowed events to unfold that caused the deaths she was at the logan unit in 2016 to buy drugs
21:21she saw the victims tied up and later heard them screaming from inside the toolbox she must have
21:28known this was not going to end well
21:36but then comes a cruel twist for corey and uliana's families mariette is set free
21:44after serving part of her nine-year sentence for manslaughter she is deported to her home in new zealand
21:52then there's a development which absolutely shocks police families and the community
22:03so my involvement with the toolbox murders started when the matter came before the criminal court of
22:07appeal uh waylon walker had requested that i act on his behalf with respect to an appeal after he was
22:14convicted of two manslaughter he was charged with murder at the time of the trial and then on appeal
22:23we applied to the court to overturn those convictions our argument was that it could not be said and the
22:30jury could not have been satisfied on the evidence before them that wayland had knowledge that these
22:37persons were going to be taken to scrubby creek and ultimately drowned his knowledge was that they
22:45were just going to be taken for what was referred to as a boot ride and released now if wayland didn't
22:51have the knowledge that these persons were going to be taken and drowned then it couldn't be sustained
22:58that he could be convicted of the manslaughter in underworld language a boot ride is when you put
23:09someone in the back of your boot and take them for a ride as a bit of a scare tactic before letting
23:14them go so wayland will appealed on the basis that they thought that the victims in this case were going
23:20to be let go
23:35there's no fairness in any of these things
23:37wayland walker wins his appeal against a manslaughter conviction and he then is set free
23:46that is a shocking outcome for families and all of the police involved anyone involved
23:52logan is a fascinating place it's about half an hour south of brisbane and it's situated maybe 20 minutes
24:11north of the gold coast
24:13there's beautiful places beautiful people there's bad in every suburb
24:22when it comes to troubles in logan a lot of it revolves around drugs
24:25the scourge of logan is ice um readily available cheap easy for people to produce
24:33not only does it warp people's minds it just changes people completely
24:37they tend to seem to lose their sense of humanity
24:48it's all about them and what they need to do to um facilitate their their habit
24:58let's face it this is what happens when people get involved in drugs they become involved
25:02with people trafficking drugs
25:11gangs and organized crime are two things that can overlap like a venn diagram so gangs a group of
25:18people who form to pursue whatever it could be so it could be just normal this is our territory
25:26there's you know a bit of street violence and that organized crime
25:29is usually defined as three or more people in an ongoing relationship
25:34seeking power or profit through committing of serious criminal offenses
25:39they were clearly in it it appears from the evidence in the court cases in an ongoing relationship
25:46making profit from selling drugs
25:51any gang of any type whether it's a motorcycle gang whether it's a football club there's always a
25:55hierarchy so at the top are the people who best exemplify the lifestyle that everyone's looking for
26:01that also means they're the most extreme person and stew is obviously that stew daniels is that person in this group
26:09there are rules within the criminal gang and uh you walk into any jail in any decade
26:16the lowest of the low in a prison is a dog a person who's a police informer
26:22so if there was a belief amongst the group that corey was informing about them to the police
26:30that in itself would feed into the self-justification for what they're about to do
26:35there was a real sense of fear in this group uh some of the people in the group felt that if they
26:51didn't go along with this that they might be next they were worried they could be in the toolbox next
26:56so they really did this out of fear out of a misguided sense of loyalty and it just ended up
27:02with the most horrific consequences for uleana and corey
27:15stowe daniels is a new zealander but he was living in australia living in logan
27:21everybody looked up to him everybody took his orders um he spoke they came when he called them they
27:28came meanwhile his brother tyson daniels is the deputy leader of the new zealand chapter of the
27:36common chairos biker gang a notorious a very scary gang
27:43i'll just quote um the judge uh in one of daniels cases that was in february of 2020 and he says
27:49you clearly knew that the money was derived from a significant drug importation and supply operation
27:56by the group of which you are a member in this video of tyson daniels you'll see him showing off
28:03his closet full of designer runners expensive shirts and really trying to betray this idea of wealth
28:11and power to people there's all my gym clothes and stuff like all my gym clothes all in there
28:19all over there and then all my gym shoes and shit show you guys the other side
28:28all tn's tn's tn's tn's tn's more tn's
28:32And a few more versace things all that type of shit oh this is my versace rack here
28:40everyone trying to say i'm wearing fake versace
28:45Tyson daniels showing off that he has money is not unusual in the organized crime community either
28:53why do people join organized crime because i want the lifestyle
28:56How do you advertise your success in organised crime?
28:59Have the lifestyle and let everybody see it.
29:03Organised crime members don't think they're going to live
29:05to get their superannuation.
29:08Can I see my future wardrobe?
29:10The drug money must be good over there.
29:14Definitely a cop.
29:17Spending the money and being seen,
29:20that is organised crime culture from the movies.
29:22So the cruelty is part of the culture.
29:26If I'm going to join the culture,
29:28and I know, because I've got the same sources
29:30as everybody else in that culture,
29:32meaning the media that we've all watched,
29:35the movies we've watched,
29:36this is what the lifestyle looks like,
29:39and I still voluntarily participate,
29:41then I also know that this is one of the consequences.
29:44So I must have some level of awareness and acceptance
29:47that this is going to be possible,
29:49and it doesn't really worry me as much.
29:52Whether there's any connection
29:57to the Comancheros over in New Zealand
29:59and this local Logan drug group
30:02really isn't clear.
30:06This wasn't discussed in court,
30:08but something we do know for sure
30:10is that Tyson Daniels visited his younger brother
30:14after the murders,
30:15and we can prove that
30:16because he was pictured on CCTV.
30:19He's come over to meet up with them.
30:28I can't really say too much more about his brother,
30:31but, yeah, that's a significant meeting.
30:33I don't think one can overstate
30:36the importance of sibling bonds
30:39in situations like this
30:41because blood runs thicker than water.
30:44When people grow up together,
30:46there's inevitably some sort of bond that occurs,
30:49and there's a power dynamic which can occur.
30:51I would be wondering how much competition there was
30:58between Daniels and his brother, Tyson Daniels,
31:01who is also involved in criminal enterprise.
31:06What the male influences in their childhood looked like,
31:12whether there was, like, a domineering parent,
31:16and what they're like in their intimate relationships as well.
31:20Whatever Stowe Daniels' motivations,
31:25it's incredibly clear that he exerts
31:27this vice-like control over others.
31:34That crew did everything he told them.
31:38They followed every instruction,
31:39regardless of how brutal and violent it seemed.
31:43There were plenty of opportunities
31:54for those friends who were gathered at the TAV
31:58that they could have extricated themselves.
32:02They could have told the police.
32:04They could have helped Yuliana escape,
32:06but they didn't,
32:07and it shows what kind of control
32:11was being held over them.
32:20The context under which this happened,
32:24where you have one person giving an order
32:26and other people acting on it,
32:29but no one being the main violent perpetrator,
32:35means that everyone then can minimize their own involvement,
32:40which seems to be exactly what happened.
32:42You can see people who take a lot of drugs,
32:53who become desperate on drugs,
32:55are willing to do things
32:55they would never have done in their sober lives,
32:57steal, destroy things,
33:00harm their own family members
33:02just to get another opportunity.
33:04Well, likewise, the addiction to the lifestyle,
33:06as well as the use of drugs,
33:07can mean that people will be willing to do things
33:10they would never have otherwise done.
33:11This whole episode started over a photograph
33:30of Stowe Daniels on a mobile phone device
33:32taken from a CCTV camera,
33:35and paranoid about his photograph being out there,
33:38believing that Corey may have been a police informant
33:41and ratting on him or setting him up for something.
33:44It's never been explained properly by Daniels
33:48as to why he took the actions that he did.
33:52But I think maybe that's what kicked it off
33:56and perhaps mixed in with a little bit of paranoia
33:59and perhaps some drug-affected thinking.
34:01But then to go from that to kidnap, torture, homicide
34:09was a massive escalation that happened very, very quickly
34:14and doesn't seem to have any reason whatsoever,
34:18especially the involvement of Yuliana out of nowhere.
34:21So it became a crazy reaction
34:26to this perceived slight that didn't even actually exist.
34:37So after years of this case playing out
34:40in various court proceedings
34:42and all nine of these accused being convicted
34:45for their various roles in this horrific murder,
34:49there comes what is an absolute shock,
34:51a twist in the case,
34:52a twist that nobody saw coming.
34:56The murder convictions of a trio
34:58sentenced to life behind bars
35:00over the gruesome toolbox killings
35:02of two people in 2016
35:03have been overturned on appeal.
35:05The men were first tried in 2021
35:08following the callous deaths of Corey Bretton
35:10and Yuliana Triscaru,
35:12who were tortured, locked in a toolbox
35:13and dumped in wetlands in Logan.
35:16The court of appeal finding there was a miscarriage of justice
35:19and ordering a retrial.
35:23The ringleader, Stowe Daniels,
35:26his double murder conviction was set aside on appeal.
35:30He's then granted a retrial.
35:32Then Trent Thrupp, Davy Tao also win appeals
35:35to have their double murder convictions set aside
35:39and they win a retrial.
35:41I don't think anyone saw that coming.
35:46You have to go back to everybody and say,
35:49I'm sorry, we have to do this again.
35:51As you can imagine what witnesses are like,
35:53that one don't want to do it,
35:56but to have to come back and do it again,
35:58you can imagine what some of them were like.
36:02The victims' families,
36:06to drag them through that horrific story yet again,
36:10must be so disheartening
36:11and so unforgiving for them.
36:15Because you're talking about people
36:16potentially taking months of time,
36:19the families of the victims can really suffer
36:21when things continue like this.
36:25Having to re-hear all of the gory details
36:28of something that happened to their loved one
36:30can be very, very difficult.
36:32But it is never truly over
36:36for a lot of these families.
36:42It's, of course, disappointing.
36:49My reading of it is, put simply,
36:52an error in the instructions
36:54that were given to the jurors
36:56and that those instructions had the potential
36:58to be prejudicial.
37:00I don't know that it's a,
37:02like a technicality in the law,
37:05but sort of.
37:06I mean, it's not a shortcoming in the evidence,
37:09which is good in terms of future prospects
37:11for conviction.
37:13It's that the judge made an error.
37:17If you look through all the people,
37:20you will see different levels of participation
37:22from I'm actively going to participate
37:24in the torture,
37:27pushing them back into the toolbox,
37:29through to I'm really just watching.
37:31But you're still there
37:32and you're still participating.
37:35And that is one of the big issues
37:37in the court case
37:39and the retrials
37:40is how well that conspiratorial aspects
37:44were covered in those previous court cases.
37:47That's your right as a citizen
37:49to have an argument,
37:52a legal argument about the verdict
37:53and to hear.
37:55And that will go back to another new trial
37:57and that evidence will be retested again.
38:01I think they deserve to be behind bars
38:04for the rest of their lives
38:05for the severity of what they've done
38:10to Juliana and Corey.
38:14That's horrible.
38:16That's very horrible,
38:17what they've done.
38:19Having to hear that,
38:20how your family member,
38:22your daughter,
38:23your mum,
38:24your cousin
38:24has been murdered in that way.
38:29It's like almost watching a horror movie.
38:31Living through a trial like this
38:49is one of the most difficult things
38:52any family members are put through.
38:55To have to now do it again
38:57at a retrial,
38:58it's cruel.
39:01The first few years,
39:21it was very difficult
39:22not having Juliana around.
39:28I even used to dial her number.
39:31It was ringing.
39:38That's just
39:39one of the ways
39:42like
39:42we try to keep Juliana,
39:45her memory alive
39:46with all of us.
39:47You do hear that often
39:53with people who've lost loved ones
39:55that need to stay connected
39:58and I think you can't overstate
40:01the long-term impact
40:03of a crime like this.
40:06You would never get over
40:07knowing what had been done
40:11to your loved one
40:11in those circumstances.
40:22The sad reality is
40:24that the children
40:25of these victims
40:26have become victims themselves.
40:30They've been deprived
40:31of a mother
40:31and a father.
40:33so people never recover
40:34from the magnitude
40:35of this type of loss.
40:40Cases like this
40:41have
40:42terrible consequences.
40:45The way people
40:46are impacted by them,
40:48police officers,
40:49even one police officer
40:50involved in this case,
40:51he left the force
40:52afterwards
40:53because
40:53it just
40:55it had such
40:57an impact on him.
41:05As part of his evidence,
41:07Detective Tim Lusty
41:08had to oversee
41:09photographs
41:10of the toolbox
41:12where he had to return
41:15and stand next to it
41:17for scale.
41:23Years later,
41:25it still
41:25smells
41:27horribly.
41:30It's not something
41:31I will ever forget.
41:34It's hard to describe
41:35the smell.
41:45It's just something
41:47that gets into your mind.
41:50new
41:51decomposition.
41:56Whether it is
41:56everybody's probably
41:58seen an animal
41:58or had an animal,
42:00dead bird
42:01or lizards
42:02or whatever else
42:03on the side of the road.
42:15So yes,
42:16it will stay
42:17with me forever.
42:17Yes,
42:20along with other things
42:21that I've had to
42:22deal with.
42:25It's
42:26yeah,
42:28it's
42:28you're never the same
42:30after
42:31and going through
42:32those trials.
42:36It's
42:37it always
42:37affects you
42:38no matter
42:38what happens.
42:42Some people
42:42deal with it
42:43better than others
42:43and I guess
42:44I've reached my point
42:45well,
42:46I just
42:46that's
42:47it for me.
42:48Well,
42:48I just,
42:48that's it for me.
42:50I just want
42:52to be
42:53big.
42:57Huh?
42:58Yeah,
42:59yeah,
43:01man,
43:01and I guess
43:02maybe
43:03we're still
43:03thinking about what
43:03this time
43:03before here,
43:04let's do it.
43:04Transcription by CastingWords
43:34CastingWords
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