‘So cold’: Accused killer pilot’s Triple Zero call played to court

A former Royal Australian Air Force pilot accused of murder told emergency services he had “no idea” how long his wife, who was “so cold”, had been outside unconscious, and that he “thought she was watching Netflix”, a court has been told.

Robert Crawford was a “love rat” who lived a double life before killing his wife, Frances, so he would not lose millions of dollars in a divorce, according to the prosecution.

The accused 49-year-old, who joined the RAAF in 1996, has pleaded not guilty, with prosecutors alleging he staged her death to look like a ride-on mower rollover at their 40-hectare property in Upper Lockyer, in south-east Queensland, in July 2024.

His defence team argued the death was a tragic accident, after Frances had moved the mower that night because she was concerned about sprinklers coming on. Her body was found at the bottom of a retaining wall in their yard.

In Crawford’s 22-minute Triple Zero call played to the jury at the Supreme Court trial, the pilot could be heard telling the operator he had no idea how long his wife had been lying near the mower.

“I went to bed, I thought she was watching Netflix,” he said.

When the operator asked why she was mowing, Crawford said she was not, and that he believed she was moving the mower because of the sprinklers.

In the call, Crawford could be heard crying between giving chest compressions, as the operator counted for him. At one point, Crawford’s compressions sped up, with the operator telling him to slow down.

At the beginning of the call, Crawford said his wife was unconscious. When asked about her age, he said, “I can’t remember”, before saying she was 49.

The operator asked if she was awake, to which Crawford responded: “No, no.”

Towards the end of the call, Crawford said his wife was “so cold”. When emergency services arrived, he could be heard on the call yelling: “Down here, please hurry.”

Frances Crawford’s death came after years of her husband having extramarital affairs, including with three RAAF colleagues, the trial has so far heard.

Their daughter, 22-year-old Jessie Crawford, told the court on Thursday her mother had explained her separation from Robert Crawford in July 2023 was because of infidelity.

Jessie told the court of an incident about a year before her mother’s death, when her father broke into the property after her mother had changed the locks.

She said she could see her father, who in the courtroom she called “Rob”, trying to get into the property, manipulating louvres on a patio window.

“I didn’t want him to see me in case he got angry,” she said, explaining she hid from him in her bedroom before calling her uncle to come help. She said her mother had already told her father to leave.

When her father got inside, he had made a coffee, Jessie told the court. She said her father had brought three plastic bags of his belongings, and she had believed he was moving things, including mugs, back into the kitchen cupboards.

When asked about her parent’s relationship, she said her mother had made up her mind about leaving Crawford, and wanted financial freedom, but was waiting until the youngest child, Jake Crawford, had graduated from school.

When Jessie discovered at a Mother’s Day 2024 morning tea that her father had moved in, she had discussions with her mum saying she was hurt.

Her mother had made promises not to get “pulled back in again”, the court was told. She said her mother was “picking our abuser over us”.

“All she really said to me was, ‘well, it’s hard for me too, you know’, and she didn’t give much past that,” Jessie said.

The court earlier heard Crawford had undergone a polygraph test regarding his infidelity as part of the pair’s reconciliation. Jessie said her mother had already made up her mind, and she had told the children the test was for closure.

Their youngest child, Jake, testified that he became aware in May 2024 that his father had moved back into the property.

When asked by Crown Prosecutor Chris Cook how he felt about that, he said: “I was distressed for her, scared for her safety. None of us kids wanted her in an environment with my dad.”

He recalled his last conversation with his mother, which was a phone call on the night of her death on July 29, 2024.

He said he could hear his father in the background, which he remembered because he was mentioning RAAF acronyms, something his father seemed to recognise.

Jake was asked about the property’s sprinkler system, and explained his father would not leave the mower on the grass because the grass would die.

Earlier in the trial, Antonia Guterres, who was a loadmaster in the RAAF’s No.35 Squadron and began a relationship with Crawford in 2023, told the court how Crawford had told her his wife was “bipolar and off her meds”.

Days before Frances’ death, Crawford had messaged Guterres encouraging her through work issues, after earlier having confessed he still had feelings for her.

Frances’ younger sister, Tamara Davis, earlier told the court of how in July 2024 her sister told her the marriage was in disrepair, that she was scared and overwhelmed, and that she wished her husband would have a car accident so she did not have to decide to leave the marriage.

The trial before Justice Lincoln Crowley continues.

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Cloe Read is the crime and court reporter at Brisbane Times.Connect via X or email.