Aaron Bunch Journalist with Australian Associated Press | Collection of published work | + 61 484 008 119 | abunch@aap.com.au
Accused Qld double murderer acted ‘weird’
A Brisbane man accused of murdering two people, who were forced into a toolbox and dumped in a creek, says he wanted to tell his girlfriend about the killings.
February 13, 2020
A man accused of murdering two drug dealers who were forced into a toolbox at knifepoint and dumped in a creek wanted to tell his girlfriend what he had done.
Cory Breton’s and Iuliana Triscaru’s decomposing bodies were found in a large metal box on February 11, 2016, at Scrubby Creek, south of Brisbane.
Tuhirangi-Thomas Tahiata, 28, has pleaded not guilty to murdering the pair after they were lured to a townhouse in Kingston 18 days earlier and assaulted by a group of men.
But in a police interview played at his Brisbane Supreme Court trial on Thursday, Tahiata admitted he was at the creek when the toolbox was pushed in the water.
However, he claims a man named Trent Thrupp pushed it into the water.
He also said his girlfriend remarked that he was acting “weird” when he got home later that night.
“She’s like ‘baby what’s wrong, baby what’s wrong’, and I was like, ‘oh nothing, babe’. I really wanted to tell her,” he said.
“This is the first thing I’ve ever hidden from her.
“I couldn’t tell her. She’s the only person in the world I wanted to tell.”
Tahiata said that after he and Thrupp left the creek, they bogged his Toyota Hilux ute on a nearby track as they exited the parkland next to the Logan Motorway.
The pair then went to Sunshine Auto Wash and cleaned the car, he said.
The trial continues.