Crystal Beale’s final moments revealed before her body was found in Brisbane River

They set off towards Sunnybank Tavern. There, Jesse claims Crystal asked if she could transfer $50 to him so he could withdraw it from the ATM since he didn’t have a debit card. He told Jesse he wanted to play slots; This was an unusual decision considering he had previously said he hated slots.

While waiting for dinner, Crystal went to play slots. When he got out, Jesse told police he was crying and didn’t win anything.

As the night progressed, Jesse claims Crystal became angrier. When they tried to leave the restaurant, Jesse wouldn’t leave the restaurant despite three attempts.

He claimed that she was cruel and spoke to him through gnashing teeth.

Crystal jumped out of the car on Ipswich Road in Annerley while she was returning to her flat in the West End, she told police.

CCTV footage presented as part of the prosecution’s case shows Crystal on the road.

“Crystal was bawling her eyes out. She walked with me to the car and I put her in the front passenger seat with the door open and her legs out,” he told police.

“I got her into the car and started driving. She started getting angry again, but I don’t remember what she said. She was also crying.”

CCTV footage of the moment shows the couple standing on the street.

Jesse says he consoled her and told her he would take her home. He says you begged him.

“Please Crystal, I’ll take you home and put you to bed,” he allegedly said. “All we have to do now is take you home and go to bed.”

At around 9.10pm, Crystal’s daughter Charlie-Rose called her mother via FaceTime and saw the two together. He says his mother was crying and looked very sad.

“She was crying and distressed,” Charlie-Rose recalls. “He said, ‘I love you, goodbye’.”

This was his last conversation with his mother.

Charlie-Rose told police that a few weeks before her mother’s death, she told him about photos she found unconscious that showed her being sexually assaulted by Jesse.

She told police she showed her daughter some of the photos of Crystal “passed out in bed and Jesse lifting her skirt or dress.”

The court documents also included hundreds of photos of Crystal doing yoga in her underwear, as well as photos of Crystal without her underwear and with her genitals exposed. Charlie-Rose told police there were other explicit images involving Jesse.

“My mom told me she took photos of all the photos. [Jessse’s iPad] Charlie-Rose told police she texted on her mobile phone and then deleted all the photos from Jesse’s iPad.

Charlie-Rose said her mother confronted Jesse about the photos, why she took them and why she still had them.

“He told me he was worried Jesse would use them against him as revenge porn or blackmail,” Charlie-Rose told police.

According to court documents, Jesse told his stepdaughter that the photos were explicit but consensual.

However, police claimed that Crystal told others about the photos and that the photos were taken while she was unconscious and without her consent.

During Jesse’s bail application, the prosecution told the court Crystal had confronted him about the photos in the car on his way back to the West End on the night of her alleged murder and that Jesse had called Jesse a rapist.

Jesse claims he’s back in the West End and Crystal gets even angrier. He claimed Crystal got out of the car and walked in front of Jesse while he was meters away from the Brisbane River, near the West End unit complex on Carlow Street.

This was the last time he was seen alive.

Court documents paint a picture of how Crystal struggled with alcohol and drug addiction for years. He said he was sexually and physically abused while in foster care after his mother committed suicide.

Charlie-Rose told police that she was aware of her mother’s hard drug use when she was young and had seen her mother use methamphetamine every few months over the past four years, causing her to lose weight and fall apart.

He recalls how his mother, who had been in his life since he was little, and Jesse had “pretty hectic fights” but that he “never saw Jesse put his hand on my mother.”

The pair split in 2020 and Crystal was selling seafood at West End markets in the area where she disappeared last year.

On the night of the alleged killing, the prosecution said Jesse claimed he parked on Ryan Street and assumed he gave him 10 seconds before getting out of the car and returning to the unit.

However, the prosecution said CCTV contradicted Jesse’s statement. In the footage, he can be seen wandering around the neighborhood for half an hour and parking in various places.

The footage shows the car stopping on Ryan Street for 11 minutes between 21.24 and 21.35.

Surveillance cameras never showed anyone exiting the car, according to court documents. The vehicle then left Carlow Street before returning to that street.

According to documents, Jesse visited Hill End Terrace multiple times throughout the night, and a person alleged to be Jesse got out of the car and headed toward the dog park at 9:51 p.m.

The prosecution argued that at 9.59pm the phone was disconnected from the vehicle and connected to the home’s Wi-Fi by 5.07am, indicating that Jesse had left his phone in the unit.

Jesse claims he started looking for Crystal after she left the car and realized she wasn’t at the apartment.

“I went down the main road next to the river where the West End Ferry Terminal is located and from there I looked at a big tree we call the Avatar tree. It’s the only big tree covered in fairy lights,” she told police.

“I parked next to the tree and walked back along the river. [ferry terminal] and then I go back to my car.

He claimed he then went to the house to see if Crystal had returned and then continued to look for her on the streets.

Jesse said he used a torch and shined light at the base of trees in the park during his search.

“Crystal loved to lean against the big bases of the trees and watch the sunset when we took our dog for a walk on Sunday,” he claims.

The prosecution said CCTV supported the version that Jesse went to a park and river area in Hill End Terrace and returned to Carlow Street several more times that evening. He was carrying something that could not be detected by police, according to court documents.

According to prosecution documents, it is alleged that what Jesse was carrying was not a Crystal, but an item that could have been used in the disposal of his body.

The prosecution alleged that between 10.54pm and 11.46pm Jesse walked from Carlow Street to his car in Drury Street and returned to Carlow Street.

Data from his phone shows he was searching for tide forecasts on the Bureau of Meteorology website while he was on Carlow Street.

Shortly after midnight, Jesse drove to Hill End Terrace and parked his car. According to the prosecution, the driver got out of the vehicle and walked towards the passenger side.

A torch was later seen near the boat ramp on the river. One person returned to the parked car, drove it to the junction of Hill End Terrace and Montague Road and parked there.

Jesse then allegedly walked along the water with the torch in the park on Orleigh Street, then drove the car back to Carlow Street and remained there until the next day.

The following afternoon, Jesse accessed Nine News, Seven News and 10 News Brisbane, according to prosecution documents. The next day, he searched for “VPN meaning” and then it said “a VPN is doing high browsing history.”

Five minutes after the call, he received an email from VPN Super containing his VPN registration code, according to court documents. Seven minutes later he called: “CCTV cameras near me.”

The autopsy report revealed Crystal’s death was a “complex case”, with her body found floating in the Brisbane River less than nine hours after she was last seen.

He had suffered serious internal neck injuries that alone could have led to death. Toxicology reports showed a combination of alcohol and sedatives, including stimulant drugs, in his system.

The report stated that although there may be some signs of asphyxiation, a postmortem diagnosis of asphyxiation cannot be made in cases where there are competing causes of death.

The statement said, “In this case, it is thought that death may have resulted from neck compression, suffocation, and the combined effects of drugs and alcohol. Therefore, the cause of death could not be determined.”

Jesse was denied bail last month and his case remains in the courts.

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