‘They will kill her’: Alleged killer’s claim

The mother of Charlise Mutten has faced the man charged with her daughter’s murder, telling a jury she wanted to go to police but he claimed the schoolgirl’s “kidnappers” would “kill her” if her disappearance was reported.

Justin Stein is facing trial after pleading not guilty to murder, but has admitted to disposing of the schoolgirl’s body.

The 33-year-old is accused of murdering his former fiance’s daughter at a property owned by his parents before dumping her body, which was concealed in a plastic barrel, near the Colo River.

The girl was visiting her mother during the school holidays, and spent her time in NSW split between Mr Stein’s family property at Mount Wilson, where she was allegedly shot and killed, and at the Riviera Ski Gardens caravan park in Lower Portland about 1.5 hours away.

Crown prosecutor Ken McKay SC said Mr Stein was the “last person” to see Charlise and had the opportunity to kill her between 7.16pm on January 11 and 10.06am on January 12.

Ms Mutten told the jury on Monday she wanted to go to police once she realised “things weren’t adding up”, but Mr Stein told her not to as his “ex-affiliates would kill her”.

Before this, Mr Stein had claimed Charlise had been left with an “auctioneer lady” who had come to the house on January 12 and offered to look after the sick girl.

The couple had arrived at the Mount Wilson property about 9pm on January 12 to find the lights off and no one home.

The jury heard Ms Mutten had called local hospitals that night to check whether Charlise had been admitted, but couldn’t find her.

Ms Mutten said she was “trying to be rational” about where Charlise was, and assumed the auctioneer had taken her daughter home to care for her.

Overnight, the jury heard, Ms Mutten looked through her partner’s phone where she found messages which she believed were evidence of him cheating.

In the early hours of January 13, Ms Mutten took her partner’s car to a nearby campground where she sent multiple messages to friends saying her daughter was “gone.

At this point, Ms Mutten told the jury things “weren’t adding up” and when she returned to the property Mr Stein “grabbed” her, pushed her to the ground and started “kicking” her.

Ms Mutten told the jury.“ I remember just yelling just to stop because I want my daughter.

“He said ‘you’re going to get in trouble for this’, he said ‘do you think I’ve got anything to do with this for your daughter’,” she said.

Ms Mutten told the court Mr Stein then took a phone call from his mother, who told him the “the auctioneer lady is not the auctioneer lady” and he thought his “ex-affiliations had … kidnapped her”.

She said she wanted to call police and Mr Stein had said no.

“He said ‘you ring the police and they will kill her’,” Ms Mutten told the court, before taking a moment to wipe her tears.

The mother told the court she was still affected by methylamphetamine she injected the previous day.

She told the court it “numbs” her from reality.

“Maybe if I hadn’t been on drugs I might have put the pieces together,” Ms Mutten said.

Ms Mutten will return to the witness stand on Tuesday where she is set to be grilled by Mr Stein’s lawyers.

The trial continues.