Murder in the family
Grannie brutally killed 25 years ago this week
A FRAIL Gold Coast grandmother was found dead, with her body stuffed inside a toolbox at her home.
Anita Lila Troy’s decomposing body was discovered inside her Madsen Place townhouse 25 years ago this week in what became known as one of the most infamous crimes of the late 1990s.
The 75-year-old had not been seen since her birthday, two weeks earlier.
In a shock twist, her own grandson, then-19-year-old Christopher Troy Corcoran, was charged with her murder.
Ms Troy’s body was found after her daughter, Linda Troy, became worried after not hearing from her elderly mother for days. She discovered the body packed into a box in an ensuite where perfume was sprinkled around to cover the smell of the decomposing corpse.
Corcoran had told anyone who asked that his grandmother had either gone to the UK or was in Britain.
Corcoran stood trial in 1999 in the Brisbane Supreme Court, where the full details of the days leading up to Mrs Troy’s death were laid bare.
His lawyers told the court that he had choked his grandmother to death after she threatened him with a knife.
However, he was unable to explain why he had tied two
cords around her neck after she died. While he pleaded not guilty to murder, Corcoran did not dispute that he had killed his grandmother, who had raised him since he was six weeks old.
Prosecutors hit back at the self-defence claim, arguing that the older woman used a walking stick and had a medical condition which would
have precluded an attack. The court was told that the relationship between the two, who lived together, had disintegrated over the young man’s gambling problem.
Shortly before her death, the casino regular had pawned her jewellery, including her wedding ring.
The jury heard that, after killing his grandmother, Cor
coran continued to live in the house for two weeks, during which time he sold off her furniture and other possessions to fund his gambling habit.
Justice Roslyn Atkinson sentenced him to a life jail term.
“The jury obviously found your actions went too far and you could have stopped but chose to continue,’’ she said.
Corcoran appealed the decision in 2000 on the grounds that a part of Justice Atkinson’s summing up regarding self-defence was incorrect.
However, this was dismissed by a unanimous judgment from the Court of Appeal.
Corcoran has since been released from custody.