Murder trial hears of gruesome find
Colleague says farm worker victim was ‘lovely guy’
Adairy farmer has described finding his badly bashed co-worker dead in his bed after he uncharacteristically failed to show up for milking.
Tony Grant Waldron, 29, was discovered dead at his Gardiners Rd, Rakaia, farmhouse, south of Christchurch, on September 18, 2019.
Waldron’s estranged wife Alana Jane Bamber, 35, and her cousin, Joshua Dylan Morris-Bamber, 28, deny murdering Waldron and are on trial in the High Court at Christchurch.
The second-in-charge at Waldron’s dairy farm gave evidence yesterday and spoke about the close friendship he enjoyed with his workmate, whom he called a “lovely guy”.
Tysen Guthrie spent a normal shift with Waldron the previous day, “having a laugh, talking s*** like always” and as they parted, he said: “See you in the morning bro”.
But when Waldron was a noshow at 5.30am milking, which was “very unusual”, Guthrie tried phoning him, and later went to his property — about 8.30am.
On arrival, he found the door wide open and the lights on.
Guthrie ventured inside and went to Waldron’s bedroom, where he found Waldron propped up in bed.
“I could tell immediately that he was dead,” Guthrie told the court. He described Waldron as swollen and bruised around his head and neck, with blood down the side of his neck.
“It wasn’t a very nice sight,” he told the court.
After just five to 10 seconds, he left the house on his motorbike and returned to the milking shed.
He told his bosses that “Tony was gone”.
Waldron had gone to bed the night before about 12.56am after playing online video game Fortnite with a mate, the court heard earlier.
The Crown says Bamber encouraged her cousin Morris-Bamber to seriously assault Waldron, whom she claimed had been having an affair with her bridesmaid, to “teach him a lesson”.
It’s alleged Morris-Bamber drove for about 45 minutes south on State Highway 1 to Waldron’s farm, with cellphone data and CCTV from Transport Agency cameras plotting his movements.
With driving time, the Crown says Morris-Bamber had “at least four minutes” at Waldron’s house, which they say was “ample time” to go inside and fatally assault him.
A post-mortem examination suggested Waldron was struck by a solid weapon at least three times on the side of his head, ear and neck.
He suffered a fractured skull, along with other multiple cracks and a broken jaw.
Morris-Bamber left at speed, the Crown claims, stopping briefly to hide “forensically important items” like the murder weapon and bloodied clothing that he would later allegedly move again.
They would never be found, the court heard.
Defence counsel, Anne Stevens KC, said the alleged four-minute window for the killing put forward by the Crown was “simply not credible”.
The trial, before Justice Gerald Nation, continues.