National

Charges dropped for woman accused of children's murder

Jun 18, 2026

Maree Mavis Crabtree (file) — Maree Crabtree, cleared of murdering her son, is no longer charged with murdering a daughter. -AAP Image

A woman accused of killing her two adult children years apart has had a remaining murder charge dropped.

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Maree Mavis Crabtree, 59, was found not guilty of murdering her 26‑year‑old son Jonathan with an overdose of prescription painkillers served in a fruit smoothie on July 19, 2017.

The charge against Crabtree for allegedly murdering her 18-year-old daughter Erin in 2012 was on Thursday dropped during a review of the case in Brisbane Supreme Court.

At his trial in the same court prosecutors had alleged Crabtree killed Jonathan by concealing drugs in his fruit smoothie.

Crabtree had pleaded not guilty to murdering him at the family's Maudsland home north of the Gold Coast and to making a fraudulent $125,000 insurance claim on his superannuation.

She also denied attempting to murder Jonathan in January 2017.

A jury in June found her not guilty of all charges relating to Jonathan after deliberating for nearly two-and-a-half days.

The proceedings on charges relating to her daughter Erin had been put on hold for the murder trial over Jonathan's death.

Crabtree was not present for the Supreme Court review on Thursday when the murder charge was dropped.

She had been granted bail and released from custody in February 2024 after a judge questioned the strength of the prosecution's case due to the first attempt to convict her over Jonathan's death ending in a mistrial.

Crabtree had spent six years on remand at that point.