Rodney Stevens

An Inquest into the death of Sharon Edwards has found the former Grafton school teacher ‘died as a result of at least one episode of interpersonal violence’ but, as the killer hasn’t revealed the location of her body, the cause and location of her death remains a mystery.

Following an extensive homicide investigation, Mrs Edwards estranged husband John was arrested, charged and found guilty of the 55-year-old’s 2015 murder by a NSW Supreme Court jury in November 2019.

Mr Edwards was sentenced to 24 years jail, with a non-parole period of 18 years.

At the trial, his son Josh told media he no longer considered Mr Edwards his father for what he’d done to his mother.

In February 2022, when Mr Edwards appealed his sentence in the NSW Supreme Court his counsel argued the judge should have directed the jury to the availability of a manslaughter verdict, but a panel of three judges found trial judge Robert Hulme had provided the jury with sufficient direction, and Mr Edwards sentence was upheld.

The Clarence Valley Independent obtained the findings of the Inquest into the death of Mrs Edwards which was held at the NSW Coroners Court in Lidcombe on July 27, before Deputy State Coroner, Magistrate Derek Lee.

The Inquest heard Mr and Mrs Edwards met while at Teachers College in Sydney, they married in 1982 and had three sons, but early in the marriage Mrs Edwards had an affair with her touch football coach William Mills.

When the family moved to Lawrence in 1987, Mr Edwards told a friend he ‘absolutely hated’ Mr Mills and the family moved to get away from him.

Mrs Edwards reconnected with Mr Mills via social media and formed a loving relationship with him in late 2013 before, in October 2014, Mrs Edwards moved into a house in Grafton and Mr Edwards remained at Lawrence.

At this time the court heard Mr and Mrs Edwards had differing views about their relationship, and despite her intentions to live a separate life, Mr Edwards kept visiting her at her Grafton residence and doing work around the house.

On March 14, 2015, Mrs Edwards and Mr Mills were out with friends at a South Grafton hotel and wanted to stay at her Grafton home that night but Mr Edwards refused.

After seeing Mr Edwards car parked in the garage of the Grafton home, Mrs Edwards and Mr Mills drove to Mr Mills’ friend’s house at South Grafton so he could stay the night.

“Mr Mills held Ms Edwards’ hand, kissed her and said goodbye,” Magistrate Lee found.

“This is the last time that Mr Mills saw Ms Edwards.”

Over the next two days, the court heard Mr Edwards contacted his three sons, sent numerous texts and made calls to Mrs Edwards phone, then visited the school she worked at stating he believed she was missing, before finally reporting her missing to police two days later.

Mr Edwards didn’t contact any hospitals, any of Mrs Edwards friends, or notify her father that she was missing.

Mobile phone data obtained by police showed the phones of both Mr and Mrs Edwards moved in the early hours of March 15, 2015, from Grafton to near Lawrence.

The court heard on April 5, 2015, Mr Edwards told a friend that he was sure that Ms Edwards was deceased and expressed the belief that she had hired a hitman to kill him but that this had “backfired”, resulting in her being killed instead, one of several inconsistencies in his claims.

Due to Mr Edwards not disclosing the location of the body, it is not known if Mrs Edwards was killed at Grafton, Lawrence or somewhere else.

Deputy State Coroner Derek Lee found Mrs Edwards died on or about March 14, 2015, by homicide ‘as a result of at least one episode of interpersonal violence.’

“The available evidence does not allow for any finding to be made as to the place of Ms Edwards’ death,” Magistrate Lee found.

“The available evidence, and the absence of any post-mortem examination, also does not allow for any finding to be made as to the precise cause of Ms Edwards death.”