A killer who brutally tortured and murdered a mother-of-four for six hours before ‘carving her up’ with a machete has been found dead in his prison cell.
John Edward Harris, 47, died at Townsville jail in Queensland’s north on Thursday morning.
He was the only person living in the cell and is believed to have killed himself, The Courier Mail reported.
Harris was sentenced to life in prison in 2016 for the ‘sadistic’ and prolonged killing of mother-of-four Tia Landers.
He, alongside his partner Linda Eileen Appleton, pleaded guilty to murdering Ms Landers in a brutal and bloodied encounter at their Brighton home in June 2014.
John Edward Harris was sentenced to life in prison in 2016 for the ‘sadistic’ and prolonged killing of mother-of-four Tia Landers (pictured)
John Edward Harris, 47, was found dead in his cell at Townsville jail (pictured) in Queensland’s north on Thursday morning
Ms Landers was stabbed, stomped on, bashed and shot in the head before her wounded body was wrapped in a blanket and left in a forest.
She was shot in the head twice and it’s believed Appleton put a bag over her head to ‘finish her off’.
The mother’s body was found in the shallow grave at Beerburrum State Forest more than a fortnight after she was killed, with significant wounds from a machete and knife.
In sentencing Harris and Appleton, Justice Jean Dalton described what they did as sadistic, hideous and disturbing.
Harris was ordered to serve at least 27 years in jail before being eligible for parole, while Appleton was sentenced to at least 23 years behind bars.
Justice Dalton said the crime was so ‘sickening’, the couple deserved a higher sentence than the statutory non-parole period of 20 years.
She handed down the unusually long non-parole periods because ‘the offending involved a protracted, sadistic and brutal torturing of Ms Landers over a period of hours’.
During the trial in 2016, Brisbane’s Supreme Court heard that the couple inflicted more than 30 injuries on the mother-of-four.
The injuries included lacerations consisted with a machete to the ankle, thigh, shoulder, scalp and two ‘incise wounds to her vagina’.
Ms Landers was stabbed, stomped on, bashed and shot in the head before her wounded body was wrapped in a blanket and left in a forest
Harris, alongside his partner Linda Eileen Appleton, pleaded guilty to murdering Ms Landers in a brutal and bloodied encounter at their Brighton home in June 2014
But it was two gunshot wounds to the head that eventually ended Ms Lander’s life.
The court heard Appleton boasted to an undercover policewoman that she and her partner had ‘carved’ the mother-of-four up after her grisly murder.
In his opening remarks to the jury, crown prosecutor Philip McCarthy said an undercover police officer was placed in Appleton’s cell soon after her arrest.
‘She will tell that officer: ”We carved her up, we chopped her up, we chopped her up with a machete”,’ he said.
Mr McCarthy said Appleton then gestured two gun shots to the head.
He said Harris told a fellow prisoner that he fired the shots that killed her and he had had an affair with Ms Landers while Appleton was previously in jail.
The couple were also accused of forcing Ms Lander’s two friends to watch on in horror as they tortured her.
The mother’s body was found in the shallow grave at Beerburrum State Forest more than a fortnight after she was killed, with significant wounds from a machete and knife
Mr McCarthy told the court the couple had been motivated to carry out the murder after Ms Landers stole jewellery from them while Ms Appleton was serving time for an unrelated matter.
Ms Appleton was recorded in prison telling Mr Harris she was going to ‘smash her f**king face to smithereens’ shortly before the mother-of-four’s murder.
‘That scum slut probably f***ing stole them,’ he alleged Appleton told Harris during a phone call, referring to jewellery she believed Ms Landers had taken.
Justice Dalton said the crime was so ‘sickening’, the couple deserved a higher sentence than the statutory non-parole period of 20 years
‘I’m going to bust that bitch so f***ing bad, I am going smash her f***ing skull in.’
Mr McCarthy told the jury a handgun and silencer found at their home matched bullet fragments in Landers’ body, which was seriously decomposed when found.
A piece of chewing gum allegedly containing Mr Harris’ DNA was found near the grave, the court heard.
Harris was previously in jail for shooting and killing his flatmate in 1998, and also dumped his body in the Beerburrum State Forest.
He was convicted of manslaughter but was released on parole in 2011.
Appleton also had prior convictions for choking two children, one of them being a nine-year-old girl.
It’s believed she has been made aware of her partner’s death.
Police are preparing a report for the coroner.
Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.