The murder case against Charlise Mutten shows how the nine-year-old’s body was tied up with bloodstained straps and buried in a sand-filled barrel with her pink Nike slippers.
The barrel was then dumped at a lonely riverbank, where it was later discovered by detectives, and lifted to make its final journey to Sydney’s main mortuary, the court was told.
On Wednesday, the jury heard gruesome details about the schoolgirl’s post-mortem examination and where she suffered gunshot wounds.
The alleged murder weapon – a BSA .22 caliber bolt-action rifle, which was wrapped in plastic along with the magazine, ammunition and scope – was also shown to the jury, who were allowed to handle it as they passed it on.
The court was later told of a comment accused killer Justin Stein made during a dinner party weeks before Charlise’s alleged murder.
A dinner guest told the court Stein had said: “If something happened and the child didn’t go back to Queensland he would end up back in jail.”
Stein, 33, the former fiancée of Charlise’s mother Kallista Mutten, 40, is on trial in the NSW Supreme Court in Parramatta accused of shooting her nine-year-old daughter.
Gruesome details about how Charlise Mutten’s (upper) body was buried in the sand in a barrel containing pink Nike slippers have emerged in the trial of her alleged killer, Justin Stein
The body of schoolgirl Charlise was found in a fetal position in the barrel (pictured in the back of the red ute) that was dumped on the banks of the Colo River in January 2022.
At the time of her death, Charlise was visiting her mother during the school holidays at the Stein family property at Mount Wilson in the NSW Blue Mountains.
Stein, who was engaged to Ms Mutten at the time, is accused of killing the girl between January 11, 7:16 p.m., and January 12, 2022, at 10:06 a.m.
He was arrested on January 18 after Charlise’s body was found in a barrel on the Colo River, 58km from Mount Wilson.
Homicide Unit Detective Justin Haydon revealed he went there to search the riverbank based on a set of GPS coordinates retrieved from Justin Stein’s cell phone.
He told the court he found a ‘reddish-brown colored drum with a lid… along an embankment’, which was later recovered via a hydraulic crane.
After unscrewing the barrel’s lid and clearing away sand, police found “what appeared to be human remains.”
They immediately sealed the vessel, which was then taken to Lidcombe Mortuary in Sydney.
Former police forensics and crime scene officer Mitchell James described how the autopsy of ‘the unknown woman in the barrel’ began at 8.30am on January 20, 2022.
Reading from his post-mortem statement, Mr James said: ‘The deceased appeared to be with his head down in a fetal position… bound with a number of blood-stained wrappings.’
He said the barrel also contained up to 100kg of sand, vegetation and soil ‘with obvious blood stains’.
“The deceased was tied up in a number of bloodstained wrappings, her head and legs… in a bloodstained blue tarpaulin with clear and brown packing tape” and a “plastic bag containing a pair of pink Nike slippers,” he told the court. .
Custody of Kallista Mutten’s (above) daughter Charlsie was a topic of discussion at a dinner party not long before the alleged shooting murder of the schoolgirl.
Kallista Mutten’s heavy ice use has been exposed during the trial for the alleged murder of her daughter Charlise, 9, while on holiday with Kallista and her then-boyfriend, Justin Stein.
Mr James said the little girl’s head and torso were in a white woven plastic bag, which was bloodstained and tied with black tape.
In addition to the pink Nike slides, Charlise’s attire consisted of a black jacket, a red shirt, black boys’ track pants, a size 10 black Target skirt “with penetrating damage to the back,” and a single black earring with a ring in her left earlobe.
Internal examination during post-mortem revealed lead fragments in the deceased girl’s brain and in her left hip.
Examination of the body also revealed a 5mm x 5mm entry wound on the right cheek where the bullet struck and dislodged a tooth and became lodged in the base of the skull.
There was also an oval-shaped entry wound on the left lower back above the right hip, which was 5 mm high and 8 mm wide and had perforated the pelvic bone.
Tony Hutt, one of the Steins’ neighbors on Mount Wilson, told the court he regularly socialized with Justin Stein’s mother, Annemie, at dinner parties at their home.
He described a bizarre encounter with Justin Stein in December 201, when Stein lay face down in a culvert and claimed he was “digging for treasure” when he was disturbed by Mr Hutt and his German Shepherd dog.
Mr Hutt told the court he later led police to that location where they allegedly found two firearms, the .22 BSA rifle and a .30 Winchester lever-action rifle.
On another occasion, during a dinner with Stein and his mother, and with Charlise and her mother Kallista, he told the court that the suspect had made a strange comment.
The autopsy on Charlise Mutten revealed gruesome details about the 9-year-old’s fatal gunshot wounds, suffered while on vacation with her mother and then stepfather, Justin Stein.
Justin Stein, 33, is charged with the alleged murder of Charlise Mutten, 9, in January 202 while the schoolgirl was staying at his family property, Wildenstein
Mr Hutt described Ms Mutten’s apparent relationship with her daughter as ‘exceptional’ and said the issue of Charlise’s custody was being discussed.
Due to Ms Mutten’s extensive drug history with methamphetamines, Charlise normally lived with her maternal grandparents in Tweed Heads.
The court heard that Mrs Mutten had been using 17 ice points a day and had been admitted to hospital twice in the months leading up to Charlise’s planned visit.
But Mr Hutt said Mrs Mutten had commented that evening that she might run off with her daughter.
Mr. Hutt said he also remembered one comment in particular from Justin Stein about Charlise.
“I can remember the conversation,” he told the court. “Justin said if something happened and the child didn’t go back to Queensland he would end up back in jail. ‘
The trial before Judge Helen Wilson continues.
