Teenager’s body burned in car after murder

What remains murky is exactly how and where Mr Gander kidnapped and then killed, with him last contacting friends on the night of December 23, 2022, and the car on fire being discovered on Loch Garry Rd at 9.39am on December 24, 2022.

What is known, was that he was already dead before the car was set alight.

Dimitri D’Elio, 27, of Mooroopna, was found guilty by a jury in July of murder, kidnapping and arson over 19-year-old Mr Gander’s death.

Kylie Anne Stott, 40, of Shepparton, was found guilty of manslaughter and kidnapping, while Danny Clarke, 41, of Shepparton, was found guilty of kidnapping by the jury.

From Tuesday, December 9, the trio returned to the Supreme Court for two days for their solicitors and the prosecution to argue the finer points of the case.

Much was made of the time and place that Mr Gander died, with different presumptions on both being made by the prosecution and different defence counsels.

Only one thing was agreed on – that it occurred some time before the Ford Territory Mr Gander had borrowed from a friend was set alight with his body in it on Loch Garry Rd at Bunbartha on the morning of December 24.

Prosecutor Mark Gibson told the court Mr Gander had come to Shepparton to buy drugs on the night of December 23.

He went to a Shepparton caravan park where Mr Gibson says he was met by Stott and D’Elio at about 11.45pm.

Mr Gibson said the pair were motivated to do something to Mr Gander for “lagging” on Stott’s friend Tyson May when he was interviewed about a gun that was found at Mr May’s house.

It is at the caravan park that the prosecution says the kidnapping started, as far as Stott and D’Elio are concerned.

However, this timing was questioned, with others saying it occurred later at Clarke’s house while Clarke was not there between about 1.40am and 6.20am on December 24.

The court was told Clarke’s part in the kidnapping did not start until he returned home to find Mr Gander incapacitated and being held against his will.

Mr Gibson said there was also an inference that Clarke knew Mr Gander was in the boot of a car for 40 minutes before they left his house.

Clarke suggested the trio take Mr Gander to a “dilapidated house” in Wanganui Rd, and it was in the two hours spent here between about 7am and 9am that the prosecution say Mr Gander was killed.

During most of the time at Wanganui Rd, Clarke was sitting in the car outside smoking drugs.

Other theories were put to the court that Mr Gander was killed on the way to Bunbartha.

D'Elio’s defence counsel Emma Strugnell said it couldn’t be excluded on the evidence at the trial that Mr Gander had gone to Clarke’s house with Stott and D’Elio of his own accord.

She surmised the kidnapping started between 5.18am and 6.21am on December 24, and that Mr Gander’s death occurred between 7am and the arrival at Bunbartha.

Ms Strugnell told of her client’s “childhood depravation and instability” and how he was still young – 24 – at the time of Mr Gander’s death.

She also told how he had only started using drugs again not long before Mr Gander was killed.

Stott’s defence counsel Daniel Sala told the court his client had had a hard life and the one bit of positive engagement she had had was with the May family, and she perceived Tyson May “had been done an ill” by Mr Gander.

Mr Sala told how Stott had been in a violent relationship until 2016 which caused her to use drugs more, and leading up to Mr Gander’s death, she had lived in a tent at Reedy Swamp and was living at Clarke’s house that Christmas.

Clarke’s defence counsel Chris Terry told the court his client’s part in Mr Gander’s kidnapping was “born of callousness and self-interest” to get Mr Gander out of his house, but that was “not from any intent to harm” him.

“There was no pre-planning or malice to Mr Gander who he only met that morning,” Mr Terry said.

Clarke will be sentenced on Friday, December 12, while D’Elio and Stott will not be sentenced until February.