{"id":297843,"date":"2026-02-23T08:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T08:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/297843\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T08:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T08:24:11","slug":"man-jailed-for-life-for-kiwi-mums-murder-on-gold-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/297843\/","title":{"rendered":"Man jailed for life for Kiwi mum’s murder on Gold Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man who strangled his ex-partner in a hotel room made a pathetic attempt to revive her before making a cowardly escape.<\/p>\n

New Zealand mum Mary Benedito, 25, died in hospital after being violently assaulted by Reo Te Whetu Marama Marsh at a Gold Coast apartment complex on November 27, 2021.<\/p>\n

Marsh, 39, faced Brisbane Supreme Court on Monday for sentencing after pleading guilty to murder.<\/p>\n

Benedito had been subject to blunt force assaults and died of a brain injury caused by manual strangulation, Justice Lincoln Crowley heard.<\/p>\n

“She had significant bruising to [her] arms, forearms, shoulders and fingers referred to as defensive injuries,” Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane said.<\/p>\n

The couple were separated and had been arguing about Benedito’s plan to move to New Zealand and her seeing other men.<\/p>\n

“It’s no explanation for his conduct,” Crane said.<\/p>\n

The couple could be seen on CCTV earlier in their holiday on the Gold Coast swimming and shopping.<\/p>\n

Marsh fled their hotel room after fatally wounding Benedito and travelled to a suburb in Brisbane while attempting to evade a police search.<\/p>\n

“He attempted to run a short distance from his arrest,” Crane said.<\/p>\n

Crane said Marsh had pleaded guilty to murder on the basis that he assaulted Benedito with intent to cause her grievous bodily harm.<\/p>\n

\"Where<\/p>\n

Where to get help for domestic violence. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Benedito brought warmth, energy and care to any space she entered, her cousin Josiah Benedito-Taotafa said in a victim impact statement.<\/p>\n

“She was humorous, totally confident in her values and deeply compassionate,” he said.<\/p>\n

Benedito’s family had faced long hours moving between hope and dread as she lay in intensive care for three days before the decision to turn off life support.<\/p>\n

“My family has seen their faith shaken, their health decline and a collective struggle to navigate grief, shock and trauma,” Benedito-Taotafa said.<\/p>\n

Benedito’s sister said she never thought she would have to bury her younger sibling.<\/p>\n

“Her greatest achievement was being a mum, and he took that from her,” the sister said.<\/p>\n

Benedito’s aunty Maria, who had helped raise her as a child, said she would always be heartbroken.<\/p>\n

“Seeing her black and blue with tubes keeping her alive broke our family into pieces,” she said.<\/p>\n

Marsh had daily regrets and self-hatred for taking what could not be replaced, he wrote in a letter to Benedito’s family.<\/p>\n

“The unfairness of my actions are too severe to ask for forgiveness,” Marsh said.<\/p>\n

\"Reo<\/p>\n

Reo Te Whetu Marama Marsh. (Source: Queensland Police) (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

Marsh’s barrister said his guilty pleas had saved the family the trauma of a trial and he was genuinely remorseful.<\/p>\n

Justice Crowley told Marsh he had dragged Benedito back to their hotel room and made a “pathetic” attempt to revive her before his cowardly escape when paramedics arrived.<\/p>\n

“You used substantial force to do so. You smothered her at the same time you strangled her,” he said.<\/p>\n

“All this happened because you became angry… you sought to control her life.”<\/p>\n

Marsh was sentenced to life imprisonment.<\/p>\n

He will be eligible for parole in less than16 years due to time already served in custody.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who strangled his ex-partner in a hotel room made a pathetic attempt to revive her before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[85,67,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-297843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-crime-and-justice","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}