Ms Mutten was confident that Charlise was wearing underpants when she set off for Mount Wilson.[1] Charlise was well and in good spirits at the time.[2]
10 Later, at 8:20pm, Ms Mutten received a text message from the offender in which he said that he and Charlise had arrived safely at Mount Wilson[3] and, whilst he cooked a meal for them, Charlise was watching television and playing with some balloons.[4] Later forensic analysis of balloons found at the Mount Wilson house by police detected Charlise's DNA on them.[5]
11 Exactly what happened after this time, and why it happened, will probably never be known, unless the offender unburdens himself of the truth concerning his crime at some time in the future. What the evidence establishes is this.
12 On the morning of 12 January 2022, the offender communicated with Ms Mutten by telephone call (at 9:07am) and text message (at 10:06am)[6] to the effect that Charlise was ill and had been vomiting. Just before he left the property to return to Lower Portland at about 10:13am,[7] he told Ms Mutten that he was leaving Charlise asleep in bed at Mount Wilson, in the care of an "auction lady". In fact, Charlise was already dead, having been shot to death by the offender at some time between their arrival at Mount Wilson on the evening of 11 January 2022 at about 7:16pm, and around 10:13am on the morning of 12 January 2022, when the offender left the property without Charlise.
13 At some time during those fourteen or fifteen hours the offender shot Charlise twice, using a stolen rifle, probably somewhere in the grounds of his mother's Mount Wilson property.[8] Two penetrating gunshot wounds were observed by Dr Marna du Plessis when she conducted a postmortem examination of Charlise's body on 20 and 21 January 2022. One injury was to the left side of Charlise's lower back or pelvic area, broadly her left hip; the other was to the right side of her face. Both wounds were inflicted by the deliberate act of the offender.
