Brisbane toolbox murder trial accused told police too busy using drugs 20200212 p5xl59.html – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Toolbox murder accused told police he did it, court hears

AAP

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A man accused of murdering two drug dealers who were forced into a toolbox and dumped in a creek told police he killed the pair because he feared ending up in the same box.

Cory Breton and Iuliana Triscaru's decomposing bodies were found in a large metal box on February 11, 2016, at Scrubby Creek, south of Brisbane.

Tuhirangi-Thomas Tahiata, 28, has pleaded not guilty to murdering the pair after they were lured to a townhouse in Kingston 18 days earlier and assaulted by a group of men.

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Iuliana Triscaru and Cory Breton (right) Supplied

But in a police interview played in his Brisbane Supreme Court trial yesterday, Tahiata admitted carrying out the crime, saying he did it in fear for his own life.

"I murdered them. I had them in my car ... I done it by myself," he told Detective Nicole Tunks.

"I swam them out, and I stood on top of them. I heard them scream.

"I'm confessing everything, you know. I'm really sorry to all the family that I've hurt."

Asked when he knew he would kill the pair, Tahiata said: "When they got on the back of my ute."

"Cause what else was I gonna do. If I let them go, I'd be in the same, you know," he said.

"These guys are crackheads, man. They'll do anything."

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A court sketch of murder accused Tuhirangi-Thomas Tahiata during his trial at the Supreme Court in Brisbane. AAP

Later, Tahiata said he spotted the toolbox floating as he drove past on the Logan Motorway.

"I went down, put some more rocks on it," he said.

"It was like, it was (a) stink, it's, it was just like really smelly.

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"Two decomposing bodies.".

Tahiata initially denied any involvement, claiming he was at a church service on January 24, the day the pair disappeared.

Prosecutor David Meredith has previously told the trial Tahiata changed his story after admitting the murders because "he didn't want to take the blame for what others had done".

The trial continues today.

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