He then choked her to death with an electrical cord. No motive has ever been revealed.
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Chalmers then left through a rear door,smashing his beer bottle on nearby train tracks. He returned home,leaving his blood-stained clothes in the laundry trough before going to bed.
“They had no previous relationship and were not otherwise known to one another,” Judd said.
Two days later Steward’s former housemate arrived to collect his belongings and found her dead.
Crime scene investigators were able to collect bedding,cigarette butts in the lounge and hair fibres on her body that would later prove crucial in Chalmers’ arrest.
An autopsy later found Steward had died from a “sustained” attack,suffering lacerations,bruising and abrasions to her face,neck and body with fragments of plastic from the iron embedded in her forehead.
At the time of the murder,Steward’s two children,13-year-old Jacinta and 10-year-old Aaron were with their grandparents.
Despite the offer of a $1 million reward,Steward’s death remained unsolved until a crucial breakthrough came 27 years later,during an investigation into the murder of another woman in Western Australia for which Chalmers was a person of interest.
Chalmers visited the home of his then neighbour Dianne Barrett – in the Perth suburb of Medina – in May 2019 to have a cup of tea before using an iron bar and his knees to choke her to death.
He then drove more than 50 kilometres to dump her body in remote bushland.
A DNA match led Victorian police to Chalmers. who confessed to an undercover officer in January.
“It must’ve taken four minutes or something like that,she stopped breathing,” he said of Steward’s death.
On Wednesday,Steward’s daughter,Jacinta Martin,turned to face her mother’s killer in court where she revealed the heartache of growing up without a mum.
“You took our mother. You took whatever words of wisdom she may have shared with us,” she said.
“Because of your actions we were left to feel like a burden to our family.”
Martin said she would forever remember her mother as a fun,loving,outspoken and caring person to all.
“She judged people for who they were to her and not because of what others may have thought about them. She did not care about where they were from,whom they loved,she just cared,” she said.
“I know telling you this will change nothing,we still don’t have Annette in our lives,but we will always have her in our hearts. All this does for us is open a chapter of our lives that remained unanswered for so long.”
Defence barrister Amy Brennan said her client had suffered a shocking childhood and a chaotic adult life marred by a father who was ill-equipped to meet his children’s needs.
Brennan said her client’s letter,which asked that he never be released and urged the judge to sentence him to life behind bars with no minimum term,was a sign of his remorse.
The court heard Chalmers had since been assessed as having poor prospects of rehabilitation,a high risk of reoffending and a violent attitude towards women.
Judd said the deliberate,calculated and unprovoked attack on Steward,who had shown the offender kindness,coupled with an unwillingness to reveal his motive showed just how dangerous he was.
She called for Chalmers to receive a life sentence and said it was open to the judge to withhold the possibility of parole.
“It is clear this offender remains a grave danger to the community,” Judd said. “We call for life.”
Chalmers,who pleaded guilty to murder,will be sentenced at a later date.
He is already serving a life sentence with non-parole term of 20 years for Barrett’s murder.
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