{"id":31444,"date":"2026-06-15T04:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T04:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/31444\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T04:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T04:29:11","slug":"ipswich-man-bobby-weaver-sentenced-to-life-in-jail-after-murdering-neighbour-and-hiding-remains-in-freezer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/31444\/","title":{"rendered":"Ipswich man Bobby Weaver sentenced to life in jail after murdering neighbour and hiding remains in freezer"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Queensland man has been jailed for life for murdering his neighbour, dismembering his body and burying the remains in a freezer in the victim’s Ipswich backyard.<\/p>\n

In April, Bobby Andrew Weaver, 31, pleaded guilty to killing 58-year-old David Thornton, a long-term family friend<\/a>, on an unknown date between January and March in 2019.<\/p>\n

Mr Thornton had been reported missing by his family and an extensive police investigation led to an excavation at his property at Goodna in Ipswich, west of Brisbane.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

David Thornton was found buried in his own backyard in 2019. (Supplied: Queensland Police Service)<\/p>\n

Officers uncovered two buried chest freezers, with one containing Mr Thornton’s heavily decomposed and dismembered remains.<\/p>\n

Weaver was arrested days later in Byron Bay and extradited to Queensland.<\/p>\n

On Monday, more than seven years after Mr Thornton’s death, Weaver was handed the mandatory life sentence for murder in Queensland.<\/p>\n

During a sentencing hearing, the Supreme Court in Brisbane heard Weaver, who was 24 at the time, shot the victim twice in the head and severed his legs below the knees with a saw so his body could fit in the freezer.<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

David Thornton’s body was found in a freezer buried in his Ipswich backyard. (Supplied: Queensland Police Service))<\/p>\n

The court heard Weaver then stole Mr Thornton’s phone and repeatedly messaged his family and friends, telling them he had gone “off grid” on holiday in Western Australia.<\/p>\n

Weaver also stole $30,000 from Mr Thornton which he used to buy a motorcycle, the court heard.<\/p>\n

Murdered in ‘cold blood’<\/p>\n

The prosecution told the hearing that while on remand, Weaver confessed to a fellow inmate and tried to coax him to execute one of Mr Thornton’s daughters and stage it as a suicide.<\/p>\n

Justice Paul Smith said Weaver “murdered a friend in cold blood” because of greed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It was premeditated, he was shot in the head twice, there was no indication of a struggle, he was seated at the time and the treatment of the body is disgraceful.<\/p>\n

“There was a protracted and highly manipulative campaign to deceive family, friends and neighbours.”<\/p>\n

“At the heart of this was greed, for the sake of $30,000.”<\/p>\n

Justice Smith told the court the killing has had a “profound effect” on Mr Thornton’s family and friends.<\/p>\n

In a victim impact statement read aloud by the prosecution, Mr Thornton’s daughter said it had been “seven years of waiting”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Seven years of no answers, no closure and no happy ending \u2026 seven years of praying for some sort of closure.”<\/p>\n

“We didn’t just lose him; we lost a part of ourselves \u2026 and we still bear the consequence of other people’s actions each and every day,” she said.<\/p>\n

Justice Smith acknowledged Weaver’s guilty plea and lack of criminal history but said it was “difficult to accept” he was remorseful given the “prolonged campaign of deception” after the murder.<\/p>\n

With time already served, Weaver will be eligible to apply for parole in 2039.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queensland man has been jailed for life for murdering his neighbour, dismembering his body and burying the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,29009,29008,29007,29006,3792,7956,2770,211,212],"class_list":["post-31444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-bobby-andrew-weaver","tag-bobby-weaver","tag-david-thornton","tag-freezer-murder","tag-homicide","tag-ipswich","tag-murder","tag-qld","tag-queensland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}