Police in Queensland have charged a man with murder after his wife allegedly drowned at a lake north of Brisbane, almost five years ago. The husband, 55-year-old Graeme Davidson was arrested when he returned from Thailand in recent days.
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00:00Police are alleging Graham Davidson allegedly murdered his wife Jacqueline while kayaking at Lake Sampson Vale north of Brisbane in November 2020.
00:12Now police wouldn't go into specifics about what happened on that day, but they allege that Mr Davidson was involved in her drowning.
00:23Bystanders performed CPR at the scene, but she was unable to be revived.
00:28Mr Davidson was arrested yesterday at a home in Brisbane, visiting from Thailand where he's been living for several years.
00:36Now he's been charged with murder with a domestic violence aggravation, fraud and attempted fraud.
00:42Those fraud charges, police say, relate to life insurance claims where there was a combined total in excess of a million dollars.
00:50Let's take a listen to what police had to say.
00:51Police allege it was non-suspicious at the time.
00:56Police are required with all deaths to report, investigate the matter and satisfy the coroner that the matter is not suspicious.
01:04In the process of doing that, detectives uncovered evidence and matters which needed further investigation, which resulted in the arrest.
01:14The evidence, like I said, it wasn't a straightforward investigation.
01:18It involved talking to experts and a number of witnesses and basically putting a lot of small pieces together to form a bigger picture.
01:26As we just heard, police say the matter was not considered suspicious at first.
01:31But after taking evidence as part of the coronial process, the matter was considered suspicious about two years after Jacqueline's death, when the homicide investigation began.
01:43As part of the investigation, police spoke with water experts about the conditions on the lake at the time, as well as other witnesses.
01:51Now, the man was living in Thailand and that presented several issues for police.
01:56They considered extraditing him as part of their investigation, but ultimately they waited for him to return on his own accord, where he was arrested, as I said, yesterday.
02:07Now, Graham Davidson appeared briefly in the Brisbane Magistrates Court this morning.
02:12He did not appear in person.
02:14His lawyer represented him in the case.
02:17Not much happened in this first mention.
02:19It was adjourned to later this month.
02:21Mr Davidson remains in custody.