...By Jack Sylva for TDPel Media.
Queensland police are searching through dump sites for the remains of Lesley Trotter, a 78-year-old retired teacher who is believed to have been dumped in a wheelie bin.
Detectives discovered blood near her unit complex bins in Toowong, in Brisbane’s west, on March 28, and believe that Trotter died sometime between midnight on March 27 and 12 pm the following day.
They say that a garbage truck collected Trotter’s body from a general waste wheelie bin outside her home during the weekly collection service two weeks earlier on March 28.
The bin is believed to have been taken to the Nudgee Waste Transfer Station before being transported to two dump sites in Rochedale and Swanbank.
Police are now going through each dump site ‘piece by piece’ to try and locate Trotter’s remains. The sites must first be excavated before detectives can scour through the rubbish.
Police have seized the rubbish truck that carried Trotter’s remains. Once found, Trotter’s remains will be forensically examined to determine her cause of death. The process is expected to be carried out this week.
Detective Superintendent Andrew Massingham said that these types of searches are not uncommon, but the scale of this one will make it quite complex.
It will require a combination of resources to ensure that they leave no stone unturned. Police have not identified any suspects and have limited CCTV from the street where the bins were taken from.
The family has been advised of the new ‘disturbing development,’ and they are finding it traumatic and confronting.
Police said Trotter’s habit of leaving rubbish on the ground and in the driveway as she rummaged through the bins to find and sort recyclables had caused ‘some angst among some people’ in her street.
