Warning: This article includes details that some readers may find disturbing.
A jury has been presented with harrowing allegations involving two individuals who reportedly mutilated a 72-year-old man’s body using a box cutter and removed his eyes before concealing his corpse with a curtain.
Following her arrest, Jodie Hill allegedly bragged to an undercover officer in her cell, claiming that the incident provided her with “the biggest rush ever.”
She is said to have remarked, “This fulfilled one of my fantasies and is only the beginning of them.”
Hill appeared in Melbourne’s Supreme Court for the first day of her trial concerning the death of John Hunter. His body was discovered in January 2023 in a bedroom of his residence in Dimboola, located in western Victoria.
The 45-year-old has entered a plea of not guilty to the murder charge. A jury of 14 was selected yesterday to hear the case.
Prosecutors allege Hill either caused Hunter’s death herself, assisted or encouraged another man to kill him, or entered into an agreement to commit the alleged murder.
Hunter was found dead by a friend about 5pm on January 23, 2023, after he had not been seen or heard from since January 20, prosecutor Nadia Kaddeche told the jury.
He had been living at his property for less than six months and required an oxygen pump to help with his breathing as he was being treated for lung disease.
When police found Hunter’s body, he was covered in a bunched-up curtain with a box cutter entwined inside it and a T-shirt pulled over his head, Kaddeche said.
She said the box cutter was used to “carve into the deceased’s body” and his eyes had also been gouged out.
“The penis, scrotum and testicles had been amputated. It’s alleged this occurred after the deceased had died,” she told the jury.
Kaddeche said Hunter’s genitalia, and a box of power tools, had never been found.
She alleged Hill and another man had killed Hunter in his kitchen and dining room area before dragging his body to a spare bedroom.
Hill had entered Hunter’s home through a sliding glass door before a physical confrontation ensured, and he fell over and was struck to the head at least twice, Kaddeche said.
She said Hill’s fingerprints were found on a gate at the property and mixed samples of her DNA were found on the box cutter, leading to her arrest in February 2023.
During a break from her police interview, Kaddeche said Hill was placed in a holding cell with an undercover police officer where she allegedly admitted the murder.
“I just went along with it, it’s new to me and it’s the first one I’ve ever done,” the prosecutor said Hill told the officer.
“I gashed his eyes out with f—— secateurs.”
Asked why she killed Hunter, she allegedly said it was “just for fun”.
However, Hill’s barrister Tim Marsh said these claims were “outright lies” and she had claimed to “be a hit woman for the bikies” during the conversation.
“That’s nonsense, she’s talking herself up in the environment of the cells,” he told the jury.
Marsh said Hill denied committing the murder herself, or by complicity with another man, denied assaulting Hunter “in any way” and will raise issues with the DNA evidence during the trial.
The trial continues on today.
