Australian woman found guilty of murder, pled guilty to the lesser charge of assisted suicide.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Natasha Darcy found guilty of murder

Natasha Darcy was found guilty of murder in the August 2, 2017 death of Mathew Dunbar, her partner of three years. 

This case was concerning because Darcy pled guilty to assisting Dunbar's suicide and not murder. The jury agreed with the prosecutor that Darcy had murdered Dunbar.

Darcy originally told the police that she had nothing to do with Dunbar's death, but on April 22 she stated that she assisted his suicide.

The Australian Associated Press article published on June 15 stated:

After sedating and gassing her grazier partner to inherit his property, Natasha Beth Darcy screamed at paramedics to keep on performing CPR after they declared him dead.

Darcy kept up her theatrics, telling authorities and first responders repeated lies, maintaining Mathew Dunbar had killed himself.

But after more than two days of deliberations, a NSW supreme court jury on Tuesday found the 46-year-old guilty of murdering the sheep farmer.

The article explains:

Darcy was accused of using a Nutribullet to blend a cocktail of sedatives to sedate her live-in partner before gassing him in his bed.

She told police of finding him unresponsive in his bed, stating: “This is the hardest bit of all. I can’t get the image out of my head. It is killing me.”

The jury was told of a letter Darcy sent to a friend after Dunbar’s death, offering her $20,000 to tell lies about him that would assist her at any murder trial.

She will face a sentence hearing on 1 October.

This Australian murder trial that lasted several months shows how assisted suicide techniques can be used to cover-up murder. I first reported on this case in November 2019. I also reported on the case on several other occasions (Link), (Link).