Charlise Mutten’s mother confronted the man accused of her daughter’s murder and told the jury she wanted to go to the police, but he claimed the schoolgirl’s “kidnappers” would “kill” her if she were reported missing.
Justin Stein faces trial after pleading not guilty to murder but admitting to disposing of the schoolgirl’s body.
The 33-year-old is accused of murdering his ex-fiancé’s daughter on her parents’ property before dumping her body, hidden in a plastic barrel, near the Colo River.
The girl was visiting her mother during the school holidays and spent her time in New South Wales split between Mr Stein’s family property in Mount Wilson, where she was allegedly shot dead, and at the Riviera Ski Gardens caravan park in Lower Portland, about an hour and a half away. .
Crown prosecutor Ken McKay SC said Stein was the “last person” to see Charlise and have the opportunity to kill her between 7.16pm on January 11 and 10.06am on January 12.
Charlise Mutten (pictured) was allegedly murdered by Justin Stein
Kallista Mutten (pictured outside court) told the jury that Mr Stein told his kidnappers they would kill his daughter if she called the police.
Mutten told the jury Monday that she wanted to go to the police once she realized “things weren’t adding up,” but Stein told her not to because her “former affiliates would kill her.”
Prior to this, Mr. Stein had claimed that Charlise had been staying with a “lady auctioneer” who had arrived at the house on January 12 and offered to look after the sick girl.
The couple arrived at the Mount Wilson property around 9pm on January 12 to find the lights off and no one home.
The jury heard that Ms Mutten had called local hospitals that night to check if Charlise had been admitted, but could not find her.
Mutten said he was “trying to be rational” about where Charlise was and assumed the auctioneer had taken her daughter home to care for her.
Justin Stein (pictured) is accused of killing schoolgirl Charlise Mutten
During the night, the jury heard, Ms Mutten checked her partner’s phone and found messages she believed were evidence he was cheating on her.
In the early hours of January 13, Ms Mutten drove her partner’s car to a nearby campsite where she sent several messages to friends telling them her daughter was “gone”.
At this point, Ms Mutten told the jury that things “didn’t add up” and when she returned to the property, Mr Stein “grabbed” her, pushed her to the ground and began to “kick” her.
Mrs Mutten told the jury: “I remember shouting to stop because I wanted my daughter.”
“He said ‘you’re going to get in trouble for this,’ he said ‘do you think I have anything to do with this thing about your daughter,'” she said.
Ms Mutten told the court that Mr Stein received a phone call from his mother, who told him that “the lady auctioneer is not the lady auctioneer” and that she thought she had been… kidnapped by her “former affiliations”. “.
Justin Stein allegedly drove around Sydney with Charlise’s body in a barrel in the back of his ute.
She said she wanted to call the police and Mr. Stein had said no.
“He said, ‘Call the police and they will kill her,'” Mutten told the court, before taking a moment to wipe away tears.
The mother told the court she was still affected by the methylamphetamine she injected herself the day before.
She told the court that it “numbs” her to reality.
“Maybe if I hadn’t done drugs, I would have been able to put the pieces together,” Ms. Mutten said.
Ms. Mutten will return to the witness stand on Tuesday, where she will be cross-examined by Mr. Stein’s lawyers.
The trial continues.
