Court Hears Possible Strangulation Signs in Crawford Trial

“When I tie up all my findings, (strangulation) is consistent but I cannot say this is what happened,” pathologist Dr Andrew Kedziora told the Brisbane Supreme Court. His testimony put the limits of forensic certainty at the centre of the murder trial: Frances Crawford’s injuries may fit strangulation, he said, but he couldn’t determine whether it caused her death.

Robert Crawford, a former military man and former RAAF pilot, stands accused of killing his wife at their remote Upper Lockyer property in Queensland on July 29, 2024, then staging her death to look like a lawnmower accident. He has pleaded not guilty. Frances Crawford, a mother and psychologist, died at the property on July 30, 2024. On Friday, November 6, 2026, the trial entered its second week.

What the examination found

Dr Kedziora told the court that head and neck injuries most likely caused Frances Crawford’s death. Scratch marks initially made him think of strangulation. “When I did the autopsy, when I saw those scratch marks ... my first thought was it's classic strangulation but of course I cannot make this diagnosis because injuries are non-specific,” he said.

He described fractures to the thyroid cartilage near her Adam’s apple and a crack in her hyoid bone, injuries consistent with substantial pressure on the neck. “It may have been caused by pressure, impact, blow ... there are multiple possible causes,” he said. Bruises marked both sides of her neck. “Any pressure on the neck can cause fractures.”

The examination also found a curved laceration about 16 centimetres long, running from her hairline toward the back of her head and ear. Its jagged edges might look like a blade cut, Dr Kedziora said, but he thought force had likely split the skin: “(Likely) either an object hit the head, or the head hit an object.” He found a small chip on the skull at the laceration site, but no evidence of brain injuries commonly seen in “coward's punch” victims.

A large patch of red abrasions under Frances Crawford’s chin could have come from fabric or a body part, he said. Thin scrapes at the base of her neck most closely matched fingernail scratches. One fingernail had been ripped off, and acute bleeding on the nail bed indicated the injury happened while she was alive. Bruises and abrasions also marked her torso, arms, hands and back.

The lawnmower account under scrutiny

The court previously heard that Robert Crawford told first responders, in body-camera footage and a triple-0 call, that he found his wife under the lawnmower, trapped beneath its engine with her neck held down by the steering wheel. Dr Kedziora hadn’t examined the mower himself; he’d seen only a photograph. “On that photograph, I find it difficult to reconcile those injuries with this scenario (of Mr Crawford),” he told the court.

He believed Frances Crawford’s neck fractures happened before death and well before paramedics arrived, when she was already in stages of rigor mortis. Someone holding her in a chokehold and pressing knuckles down could have caused the bruises, he said, while fingernails might have scratched her as she theoretically tried “to free herself.” He also said a lawnmower could theoretically cause the injuries under a particular scenario.

Photographs of the mower that Dr Kedziora reviewed in the previous few days drew his attention to the steering wheel. “The angle of the steering wheel is very weird,” he said. During cross-examination, he acknowledged that he had earlier told a committal hearing the chin injuries could have been caused by a steering wheel.

Competing interpretations, no final diagnosis

Cross-examination established that strangulation didn’t explain rib fractures identified on Frances Crawford. Dr Kedziora stressed he was “not diagnosing” either scenario as the truth. A peer reviewer considered the chin abrasions “more likely” to have come from the mower than from “manual strangulation,” and said Dr Kedziora was possibly “trying to fit the cause of death into police suspicions,” pointing to a “hint of bias.” Dr Kedziora acknowledged the comments and disagreed.

If strangulation caused the neck injuries, he believed it would have involved an arm bar or chokehold position, not hands, because particular bruising was absent. Yellowish abrasions showed Frances Crawford had been injured after death, he said, but he couldn’t identify exactly how. The injury might have happened during transport, while she was being dragged, or in another scenario.

No single account of Frances Crawford’s death emerged from the testimony. Dr Kedziora’s findings, the peer reviewer’s assessment and the account attributed to Robert Crawford remain separate pieces of evidence before the court. His limit was clear: strangulation fit the injuries, but he couldn’t say that was what happened.