{"id":590994,"date":"2026-04-07T10:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T10:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/590994\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T10:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T10:06:12","slug":"mum-hid-fatal-painkillers-in-sons-smoothie-jury-told","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/590994\/","title":{"rendered":"Mum hid fatal painkillers in son’s smoothie, jury told"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mother gave her adult son a lethal smoothie following disputes over money and the family’s intolerable living situation, a jury<\/a> has been told.Maree Mavis Crabtree has been accused of killing her 26-year-old son, Jonathan, with an overdose of painkillers on July 19, 2017, in the family’s home north of the Gold Coast<\/a> before making a $125,000 insurance claim.<\/p>\n

The 59-year-old has also been accused of attempting to murder her son in January of the same year.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Maree Crabtree, pictured here leaving the Supreme Court in Brisbane on February 7, 2024, has been accused of killing her 26-year-old son Jonathan with an overdose of painkillers on July 19, 2017 (AAP)<\/p>\n

Crabtree pleaded not guilty to the murder, attempted murder and fraud charges when her trial began at Brisbane Supreme Court today.<\/p>\n

Her son was found dead by paramedics while lying on his bed at 9.55am with his legs hanging down to the floor and a Spider-Man backpack at his feet, Crown prosecutor Caroline Marco told the jury.<\/p>\n

“A pathologist determined the cause of his sudden and unexpected death was an excessive amount of the drug oxycodone in his bloodstream,” she said.<\/p>\n

Investigators did not find the prescription painkiller or related packaging in the son’s room or among his other drugs in the Spider-Man pack.<\/p>\n

“The Crown will prove it was his mother who killed him by deliberately giving him a drink in the form of a shake that she prepared with a blender in the kitchen of their home that contained the oxycodone that killed him,” Marco said.<\/p>\n

The jury was told they would hear from Crabtree’s daughter Tara, who would testify that she helped her mother by keeping a lookout as she prepared the drink and of later hearing the son struggling and coughing throughout the night.<\/p>\n

\"JonathanJonathan Crabtree was a “troubled man” with abusive behaviours who used drugs and had been charged with robbing a chemist, the jury heard. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“Tara will tell you the next morning her mother told her Jonathan was dead but it was four hours later that (Crabtree) called Triple Zero,” Marco said.<\/p>\n

“Tara says that was not the first time that her mother had given a drink to Jonathan containing oxycodone with the intent of ending his life.”<\/p>\n

Jonathan was a “troubled man” with abusive behaviours who used drugs and had been charged with robbing a chemist, the jury heard.<\/p>\n

A car crash in 2015 had left him with permanent injuries that meant he required physical care.<\/p>\n

Crabtree lived in the Maudsland home that was jointly owned by her two children.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Crabtree found her living situation with her son “no longer tolerable” but she did not have the money to buy out his stake of the house, the jury heard. (AAP)<\/p>\n

“She told Tara that Jonathan’s involvement in the robbery had put the family’s finances in jeopardy, which was the reason why she needed to kill him,” Marco said.<\/p>\n

Crabtree found her living situation with her son “no longer tolerable” but she did not have the money to buy out his stake of the house, the jury heard.<\/p>\n

Investigators found numerous bottles of liquid oxycodone in the family’s home and a smoothie blender that tested positive for drugs, Marco said.<\/p>\n

Defence barrister Angus Edwards was expected to make an opening statement.<\/p>\n

The trial is due to run for five weeks before Justice Martin Burns and hear from 60 witnesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mother gave her adult son a lethal smoothie following disputes over money and the family’s intolerable living…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-590994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}