Airbnb Guest Killed Host After Developing Infatuation, Prosecutors Say

A 62-year-old Englishman who developed a fatal fixation on his Airbnb host has avoided a murder conviction after killing her and setting fire to the rural Victorian home while her body remained inside.

The badly burned remains of surveyor Maree Vermont, 60, were discovered in August 2023 among the ruins of the house she had designed and built in Goldie, a small community about 70km north of Melbourne.

Because the fire left her body unrecognisable and destroyed crucial forensic evidence, two Supreme Court of Victoria juries were unable to find beyond reasonable doubt that she had been murdered.

On Thursday, Timothy Loosemore appeared in the Supreme Court of Victoria for a pre-sentence hearing after being convicted of manslaughter at his second trial.

His first trial, which unfolded while public attention was heavily focused on the case of convicted mushroom killer Erin Patterson, ended without a verdict after jurors deliberated for three weeks.

Prosecutors had alleged Loosemore deliberately killed Ms Vermont inside her Goldie property before lighting the blaze in an attempt to conceal what had happened.

But the severity of the fire meant forensic specialists could not establish Ms Vermont’s precise cause of death, a gap that left jurors with reasonable doubt about whether Loosemore acted with murderous intent.

Loosemore had stayed intermittently at Ms Vermont’s home, renting a room in the dream property she had spent three decades planning, building and refining.

He initially stayed as an Airbnb guest in March 2023 after arriving in Australia the previous September.

Crown prosecutor Mark Gibson, KC, told the jury in his closing address that Loosemore ‘snapped’ when his desire for an ongoing intimate relationship was repeatedly rejected by Ms Vermont after they had a ‘brief sexual dalliance’ early on.

‘I’m not suggesting that the murder of Maree Vermont was a pre-planned plotted murder,’ he told the jury. 

‘I’m submitting that there was a crescendo of disappointment which boiled over on the evening of August 5, in a way, in a horrific way, where Mr Loosemore snapped.’

Mr Gibson said Loosemore violently assaulted Ms Vermont before he covered up the crime. 

‘He did something horrific to Maree Vermont,’ he told the court. ‘Something he needed to conceal from the world. 

‘That something was him physically attacking Maree inside that house during which he killed Maree Vermont. An attack with murderous intent.’

Ms Vermont’s blood was later found all over Loosemore’s pants and T-shirt, and the jury heard Ms Vermont had fought desperately for her life. 

‘During that physical attack he suffered a series of linear scratches to his right cheek; to the area above his top lip; and to his neck,’ Mr Gibson said. 

‘Three different places. A visual record of what must have been her desperate attempts to repel his attack and survive. The hallmarks of attempting to survive … She must have been literally fighting for her life.’

Forensic experts told the court no sooting was found in Ms Vermont’s airways and no carbon monoxide was detected in her blood, indicating she was likely dead before the fire was lit. 

‘It was possible she was dead, but (the expert) couldn’t exclude that she was alive at the time of the fire,’ Mr Gibson said. 

Ms Vermont’s body was found face down in the living room. Three kitchen knives were also located there. 

She never left the house despite five easily accessible exits – and even the dog escaped.

The jury heard the severity of the inferno was consistent with flammable liquid having been spread, with petrol components detected on a mat and blanket in the house.  

Moderately evaporated petrol was also found on Loosemore’s clothing and shoes. 

Loosemore did not give evidence at either trial and his account of what happened that night came from what he told neighbours, paramedics, police, and a doctor.

The jury heard he arrived drunk at hospital after the fire with a blood alcohol content of 0.18 per cent. 

He claimed he had dinner with his host that night, sharing a bottle of wine and some beers before they squabbled over a repair to the verandah.

He gave various conflicting reasons for going outside the stone house, saying it was either to get firewood, go for a walk around the property, or check the chickens. 

But he told police that when he turned around, the house was already well alight and too hot for him to re-enter. He denied lighting the fire or ever harming Ms Vermont. 

Loosemore could not explain the scratches on his face or how he came to have blood on him.

The prosecution argued Loosemore’s version of events was a lie, and his feelings towards Ms Vermont had been intense, one-sided, and increasingly frustrated.

It was an unrequited love that had built into resentment and ultimately a motive for murder, the court heard.

Ms Vermont’s son Darcy told the jury his mother had to keep reminding Loosemore she did not want an intimate relationship.

She felt he liked her more than she liked him and that he kept ‘pushing for more.’

The court heard Ms Vermont valued Loosemore’s practical help around the large rural property and his company, but did not want romance. 

‘Can you please keep a very casual eye on Tim today?’ Ms Vermont told her son just days before her death. 

‘I made it clear that I don’t want an intimate relationship with him. He is taking it badly.’

In May that year she told a friend Loosemore had been pressuring her for a relationship and added: ‘Tim has been crying all night.’ 

She told her friend she was ‘riddled with guilt’ and ‘felt guilty not being able to oblige him in that respect’.

On Thursday, Ms Vermont’s devastated family packed into the court to confront Loosemore face to face and spell out the deep pain his actions had caused. 

‘One of the big things mum always asked for was not to be cremated,’ son Darcy told the court. ‘Imagining her in the fire brings me so much more distress

‘Losing my mum in this horrific way has been the most heartbreaking, confusing … it has been the most life-changing thing that I could never have imagined.

‘She was a beacon of unconditional love and support. She was such a beautiful mother, a beautiful person.’

Harrison Vermont told the court his mother’s death would never be overcome. 

‘The loss of her life through an event that is violent and deliberate is not something I can ever properly come to terms with,’ he said. 

‘For a year, it was hard to turn my mind away from imagining the end of my mother’s life. I imagined her experience, her absolute terror at being attacked.

‘Over and over again, different scenarios of terror and violence played out in my mind, coming to me in my sleep and keeping me up until dawn.’

Lachlan Vermont expressed frustration at the drawn-out court process brought on by Loosemore’s callous denials. 

‘Timothy not pleading guilty or taking responsibility has taken a bigger emotional toll on me than I expected,’ he said. 

‘It is not simply the lack of accountability, and the injustice of that causing anger within me. It is all the unknowns, all the ways my brain tries to make sense of something so incomprehensible.

‘Not only that, seeing the impact on my family, friends, and others throughout the trial has been incredibly painful, and added to the distress, anger, and feeling of helplessness.

‘I was unable to attend the retrial because emotionally I could not put myself through that pain again.’

Mr Gibson urged Justice Andrew Tinney to impose a sentence as severe as possible for the charge of manslaughter. 

Loosemore will be sentenced at a date to be fixed.