“It is not uncommon for us to message each other while we are both in the house. Frances is a bit of a night-owl and stays up pretty late by herself. It is a large house, and we had already said goodnight, so I did not feel the need to go and see her in person to tell her this. I was pretty much prompting her to see if she was coming to bed too.”
Text messages submitted to the court as part of Mr Crawford’s successful bail application detail their communication on the Signal app. There are no messages between the pair between about 5.20pm and 11.20pm, although she is known to have called her son for 43 minutes from 7.13pm.
According to the court documents, Mr Crawford says he woke later in the night, and reached over in bed to grab his wife’s hand.
“I realised she was not in bed. I jumped out of bed and went to the toilet. I then walked out to the living room to find her, as it is not uncommon for her to fall asleep in front of the TV.”
He told police he checked the house, calling out for her, but could not find her.
Mr Crawford says it was while he was looking for her outside, using the torch of his phone, he discovered the upturned mower.
Frances Crawford’s loved ones described her as a devoted mother to three children, a beloved daughter, sister, friend, dedicated health professional, and a valued member of her church and community.Credit: Nine News
“When I looked over the back rock ledge, I saw the shadow of the mower down the embankment, lying on its side. I could see legs sticking out from underneath the mower and realised that it was Frances,” he says.
Mr Crawford says he tried talking to her, but there was no response. He says he was eventually able to lift her out from under the mower, before calling paramedics.
In the call, he says to the operator: “I don’t know…just found her. She’s off the wall…like the mower’s rolled and she’s, I…I dunno…what’s she doing?”
The call taker clarified if the mower had rolled onto Mrs Crawford, to which he replies: “Yeah…yeah…I’m just, I’m trying to, I had to pull it off and like…I think she’s still okay…I think, but I need an ambulance ASAP.”
In his subsequent police interviews, Mr Crawford told police how the pair had marital problems, which he claims they were trying to resolve. “Our problems stem from me being unfaithful during our marriage. I have been unfaithful on numerous occasions over the course of a 10-year period.”
He says his wife became aware of the affairs in mid-2023, and resulted in him moving out of the home. “I am not proud of these things and embarrassed by my actions,” he told police.
In the months before her death, Mr Crawford moved back in. Prosecutors however said Mrs Crawford was due to leave her husband for the final time, and documents submitted to court give this as the motive for murder.
“This angered Mr Crawford as he stood to lose financially and would likely be required to leave the family home again,” prosecution documents say.
“Mr Crawford’s frustration at his wife set him into a murderous rage.”
Robert Crawford, a pilot and safety officer with the Royal Australian Air Force, has been granted bail.Credit: Nine News
The prosecution says there was an argument on the night of the 29th, which culminated in Mr Crawford strangling his wife, causing her death. Blood was found inside the en suite of their home, which matched the DNA of both him and his wife.
Mr Crawford, the prosecution alleges, was willing to go to great lengths to avoid punishment for killing his wife.
His defence barrister, Saul Holt, told the court the prosecution’s case was “very weak”, and said parts of it would be contested. He described in documents that Mr Crawford “frantically called emergency services in the early hours” of July 30.
An autopsy report filed to the court said Mrs Crawford had suffered multiple injuries, including a 16-centimetre scalp laceration, large scalp bruises, facial bruises, abrasions on the neck and under the chin and rib fractures. It detailed that ambulance officers found Mrs Crawford “cold and stiff”.
Blood found on the rocks of the retaining wall at the Crawford home.
The report said paramedics did not attempt resuscitation because “it was apparent that she had died some time ago”. The autopsy conclusion said Mrs Crawford’s cause of death was neck and head injuries.
Several possible causes of death were considered, and included: Hypovolaemic shock due to haemorrhage from scalp laceration, neck compression, traumatic asphyxia, positional asphyxia.
The prosecution’s botanical expert, Gordon Guymer, found Mrs Crawford’s ugg boots were “not worn onto the lawn adjacent to the house”, and if they had have been, then there would have been considerably more pieces of grass in the tread.
The left ugg boot was still on Mrs Crawford’s body at the crime scene, while the right was adjacent to her, the analysis says.
A 20 centimetre long piece of grass was found between her toes on the right foot, with Guymer saying it was highly unlikely she would have put her sock on with the piece of grass between her toes, or the grass being present in her sock before she put it on.
Guymer also found there were fruits of cobbler’s pegs, or prickles, on the inside of Mrs Crawford’s pyjama top and pants. He found it was unlikely the 11 prickles were present when the pyjamas were put on given the discomfort they would have caused to the wearer and their skin.
A biomedical engineer report found that it was improbable that an accident with a ride-on mower could result in head impact at the top of the retaining wall and Mrs Crawford’s body ultimately coming to rest 1.8 metres from the wall.
“The neck injuries reported at the time of death, including hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage fracture, are very rare as far as traumatic fractures are concerned…it is unlikely that impact forces associated with the mower could explain the observed neck pathology”.
Blood found at the scene of the Crawford home.
In defence documents, Mr Crawford’s legal team said those conclusions were “at best for the Crown, highly contestable”. The scenario that Mrs Crawford reversed the mower at night and fell from it could also not be ruled out, the defence said, referencing the autopsy report.
The court documents state Mr Crawford had deployments to Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands. He was part of operations Slipper, Catalyst and High Road in the Middle East and has been ranked as a squadron leader since 2010. In 2017, he was promoted to the rank of Wing Commander.
Since 2019, he has been attached to the 35 Squadron in Amberley as a pilot, with duties including flight instruction, maintenance and safety work.
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According to Mr Crawford’s police statement, the pair began a relationship in 1996, after meeting at a church camp in Maroochydore. They were married two years later in Toowoomba, and had three children, who are now adults, and had moved out of the home.
Mr Crawford remains suspended from the Air Force, however his legal team said he intended to have that lifted, and return to the RAAF in administrative duties.
A trial is not expected until late 2026, and Mr Crawford remains on bail, where he must report to police, and not leave Queensland.
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