35 That plan was foiled by the presence of others at Rose Bay wharf, which CCTV footage showed to be very busy at 6:51pm when the offender arrived there,[1] and at Taplin Park boat ramp in Drummoyne, where he arrived at 7:37pm.[2] The offender went to both locations during the night of 13 to 14 January 2022, spending some hours waiting at Drummoyne, inferentially for the area to be less populated – but he was not able to launch his boat. Prevented from depositing Charlise in an ocean grave he set off from the Five Dock area at 10:44pm[3] for a third point of access to a body of water, arriving at Windsor Boat ramp at 1:26am on 14 January 2022.[4] En route, he again stopped for fuel and food. Throughout this time, he maintained his pretence to Ms Mutten that he was searching for her daughter with the intention of bringing her home safely.
36 Having remained in the area of the boat ramp from 1:26am, the offender left at 1:42am, without having been able to launch his boat. He then changed his plan for the disposal of Charlise's body, switching to a much less populated area in which to dump the barrel into a river. He drove to a remote location along the Colo River and came to a stop along Lower Colo Road at Colo.[5] His journey and his stopping point were tracked digitally, and the police officers who later searched for Charlise, who it was still hoped would be found alive, located the barrel on 18 January 2022.
37 There, a small spillage of sand[6] establishes that the offender brought the barrel down from his utility, emptied almost all the contents of the five bags of sand into the barrel on top of Charlise, and replaced the lid. Plainly intending that the barrel would roll down the embankment and into the river, the offender sent the barrel down the steep drop to the water's edge. Unluckily for him, it became wedged between a tree and a rock just short of the water's edge, and it was later found.[7]
