Charges dropped for woman accused of children’s murder

The woman accused of killing her two adult children years apart also had her other murder charge dropped.

Maree Mavis Crabtree, 59, was found not guilty of murdering her 26-year-old son Jonathan on July 19, 2017, by overdosing on a prescription painkiller in a fruit smoothie.

The charge against Crabtree for the alleged murder of his 18-year-old daughter Erin in 2012 was dropped during the hearing of the case in the Supreme Court in Brisbane on Thursday.

At his trial in the same court, prosecutors claimed that Crabtree killed Jonathan by hiding drugs in his fruit drink.

Crabtree was found not guilty of murdering her at her family’s home in Maudsland, north of the Gold Coast, and making a false $125,000 insurance claim on her pension.

He also denied attempting to kill Jonathan in January 2017.

In June, a jury found her not guilty of all charges related to Jonathan after deliberating for nearly two and a half days.

Hearings on charges involving his daughter Erin had been postponed due to the murder trial over Jonathan’s death.

Crabtree was not present at the Supreme Court review on Thursday, when the murder charge was dropped.

He was granted bail and released from custody in February 2024 after a judge questioned the strength of the prosecution’s case over the initial attempt to convict him after Jonathan’s death resulted in a mistrial.

Crabtree had been imprisoned for six years at this point.