Retired teacher’s body was dumped in a bin and collected by garbage truck – now search for corpse turns to rubbish tip
- Sad twist in search for Lesley Trotter
- Police say body was collected by garbage truck
- Large-scale search for remains launched
The remains of a retired teacher who went missing a fortnight ago were collected by a rubbish truck from a wheelie bin outside her home, police have revealed.
Queensland Police believe Lesley Trotter, 78, died sometime between midnight on March 27 and 12pm the following day after finding blood near her unit complex bins in the west Brisbane suburb of Toowong last Friday.
Detective Superintendent Andrew Massingham said on Tuesday afternoon that a garbage truck had collected Ms Trotter’s body from a general waste wheelie bin outside her home during the weekly collection service two weeks earlier on March 28.
The body is yet to be found and police will now mount a large-scale search at several waste facilities.
Police will now launch a large-scale search for Lesley Trotter’s remains at a garbage tip
Police believe a garbage truck had collected Ms Trotter’s body from a wheelie bin outside her Toowong unit complex during the weekly collection service. Pictured are police at the complex in Brisbane’s west
‘Ongoing investigations can reveal that on the morning of Tuesday, the 28th of March this year, the body of a female we believe was Lesley Trotter was located in a general waste wheelie bin,’ Det Supt Massingham told reporters.
‘It was evident she was deceased. Due to the positioning of the body, we can’t rule out foul play.
‘Later that morning that bin was collected by a rubbish truck.’
The truck travelled to Nudgee Waste Transfer Station, where the rubbish was dropped into a pit.
An additional 22 trucks also visited the site on that Tuesday before the loads were compressed and taken away in six B-double semi-trailers.
The rubbish was transported to two dump sites in Rosedale and Swanbank, which have since been quarantined as police launch the extensive search to recover Trotter’s remains, which is expected to be a difficult ‘piece by piece’ operation.
‘These types of searches are not uncommon, but I think the scale of this one will make it quite complex for us,’ Det Supt Massingham said.
‘It will require a combination of resources… to ensure we leave no stone unturned.’
Lesley Trotter last spoke to her family on March 27, sparking a desperate land and water search
The rubbish truck that carried the 78-year-old’s remains has also been seized by police.
Once found, Ms Trotter’s remains will be forensically examined to determine her cause of death.
Ms Trotter’s family has been advised of the new ‘disturbing development’.
‘This is traumatic to them. I think this is confronting for them, the nature … would be concerning for any family, particularly a lady of that age … looking forward to the next chapter of her life,’ Det Supt Massingham said.
The breakthrough comes several days after police revealed blood was found near bins that Ms Trotter would regularly rummage through to sort recyclables.
Police said Ms Trotter’s habit of leaving rubbish on the ground and in the driveway as she rummaged through the bins to find and sort recyclables had caused ‘some angst among some people’ in her street.
The investigation into Ms Trotter’s death is expected to be ‘lengthy and complex’.
The retired teacher was an avid hiker and bushwalker before she went missing
‘I thank those members of the public … we have so far interviewed,’ Det Supt Massingham added.
‘Our doorknocks in the area are coming towards the end.
‘It was important the information relevant to the location of her body was kept quiet across the weekend until we were able to exhaust people’s memory with respect to their recollections on Tuesday the 28th of March.’
Police have not confirmed how officers know Ms Trotter’s remains were inside the bin but said they have ‘strong evidence’.
Ms Trotter last spoke to her family at about 11am on March 27 and wasn’t at her Toowong home, on Maryvale St, when they visited the following day.
Her mobile phone and wallet were found in the unit and her car was still in the garage.
Investigators said last week they believed she was dead after conducting extensive searches at Brisbane’s Mt Coot-tha, based on the fact Ms Trotter was an avid hiker and bushwalker.
