A man accused of murdering his housemate allegedly told a friend that he had strangled her and asked for help to dispose of her body, a court has heard.
Warning: This story contains content some readers may find distressing.
Johnathan Paul Parker, 51, of Aldinga Beach, is standing trial in South Australia’s Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to the murder of Krystal Marshall, 38, in October 2023.
Parker today admitted to setting Krystal Marshall’s remains on fire and pleaded guilty to a count of destroying human remains to pervert the cause of justice.
The court heard Parker had been living at Krystal Marshall’s Aldinga Beach house, with the woman’s ex-wife Anastasia Marshall.
It also heard that Parker and Anastasia Marshall had been in a romantic relationship, and it was “likely” that Krystal Marshall was “unaware”.
Johnathan Paul Parker is standing trial in South Australia’s Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to the murder of Krystal Marshall. (Supplied)
Opening the trial, prosecutor Jim Pearce KC said it was alleged Parker killed Krystal Marshall between 2:09pm and 2:55pm on October 19, 2023.
“It’s on the prosecution case that on the next day, October 20th, he set fire to Ms Marshall’s body,” Mr Pearce said.
He told the court it was alleged that at the time of her death, Krystal Marshall had wanted Parker to move out.
“And on the prosecution case, it’s likely this issue came to a head on the day that she was killed and may well have been the catalyst for her death,”
Mr Pearce said.
He also told the court that on the day of the alleged murder, Parker made an alleged admission to his friend.
“The accused told him he had killed Krystal Marshall,” Mr Pearce said.
“He said he strangled her and he asked his friend to help him dispose of the body.”
Jim Pearce KC opened the trial on Wednesday. (ABC News: Lincoln Rothall)
Mr Pearce said the friend refused to help and had planned to report the conversation to police, but that Parker later told him, “that he was only ‘f***ing around anyway’.”
“On the Crown case, obviously enough, the accused had a problem on his hands,”
he said.
The court heard Parker’s friend told police of the conversation after he saw news reports about the fire.
Mr Pearce said that, on October 20, 2023, police attended Krystal Marshall’s home for a welfare check after she failed to turn up for her morning shift at Coles in Christies Beach.
He said that, despite knocking on doors and windows, there was no answer.
“On the prosecution case, the accused and Anastasia were likely inside. They were ‘playing possum’,” he said.
Johnathan Paul Parker had been living with Krystal Marshall at Aldinga Beach. (Facebook)
Mr Pearce said it would be alleged that later that afternoon, Parker “set fire to Ms Marshall’s body”.
“It’s alleged that he spread petrol around Ms Marshall’s bedroom and placed planks of wood over her body as she lay on the bed and placed other flammable objects over her legs and locked her bedroom door,” he said.
Parker ‘feigned ignorance’, court told
The court also heard Parker allegedly spread petrol along the passageway, near the bedroom door.
“Soon after he left, passers-by saw smoke and called the fire brigade,” Mr Pearce told the court.
“By then, the accused was outside the house, and on the prosecution case, outside feigning concern for the whereabouts of Krystal Marshall and feigning ignorance of what happened to her, feigning ignorance about how a fire had started.
“On the prosecution case, despite that feigned ignorance, he knew all too well where she was because he had spent the better part of the previous 24 hours inside that house with Krystal Marshall’s dead body lying on the bed, in that front bedroom.”
Mr Pearce said that, upon their arrival, Country Fire Service (CFS) officers had to force entry to the property as the front door was locked.
“When they got in the front door, they immediately smelt petrol,” he said.
Krystal Marshall’s body was found inside her Aldinga Beach home in October 2023. (ABC News: Ethan Rix)
Mr Pearce adding that the officers noticed “furniture piled up” by Krystal Marshall’s bedroom door and identified five separate fires in the house.
The court heard that Krystal Marshall’s cause of death could not be positively determined because her body was “extensively damaged by fire”.
“There was no evidence of soot in the upper or lower airway, or in the lungs, there was no evidence of soot in the mouth or oesophagus, the sum total of those findings indicates … the death occurred before the fire,” Mr Pearce said.
The court also heard that the fire alarms in the home had been disabled.
The trial, which is being heard judge alone without a jury, is continuing.
