Police thought Meaghan Rose’s death was a suicide. Now an accused killer is before the court

A week after Victorian woman Meaghan Louise Rose was found dead at the bottom of a cliff on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, her accused killer, and boyfriend, went to her workplace.

There, Keith Lees spoke with Rose’s boss, Susan Booth. He wanted things out of her locker, as well as her pay.

He also told Booth that the couple had argued at the cliffs before the 25-year-old slipped and fell.

Booth was questioned about the conversation as she gave evidence on Wednesday in Maroochydore Magistrates Court, where Lees, now aged 72, is facing a committal hearing charged with murder.

“Keith told me they’d had an argument and Meaghan had been drinking. Meaghan left the unit and drove to Point Cartwright cliffs,” the court heard Susan Booth’s statement read.

“Keith followed her shortly after, they argued again at Point Cartwright, Meaghan ran from him, Meaghan went over the fence and then slipped.”

Lee’s defence barrister, Simon Lewis, asked Booth why she had not reported the conversation about the argument at the cliffs to police.

“I didn’t put two and two together,” she said.

“You know, when you see somebody grieving, you think, all right.”

Rose was found dead at the base of Point Cartwright cliffs at Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast in July 1997.

Her death was originally ruled a suicide. An autopsy found she had alcohol in her system, as well as the drug oxazepam, a benzodiazepine. The medication had not been prescribed by her GP.

On the last day she was seen alive, Rose had gone to the Maroochydore RSL with Lees.

The court heard Lees told police that on the night of July 17, Rose told him she was going to see a friend, and did not return home.

He did not look for Rose, and he tried unsuccessfully to phone her at 11.30pm.

Rose and Lees, who was 19 years her senior, had been living together.

Lees told police his young girlfriend had been exhibiting behaviour that seemed as though she was depressed, but other people who knew her and saw her on July 17 told police she had not been displaying suicidal or depressive behaviour.

Crown prosecutor Sarah Dennis told the court there was a life insurance policy for $250,000 on Rose’s life, and Lees was the beneficiary.

Under the terms of the policy, death by suicide would not be covered until 13 months had elapsed.

“Ms Rose died only 13 months and three weeks after taking out the policy,” Dennis told the court.

Lees’ daughter from a previous relationship, Wren Dawnsong, who was a child at the time and has given multiple statements to police in the decades since Rose’s death, was also called to give evidence on Wednesday.

“Your father had told you what not to say on that occasion and that you felt pressured speaking to Maroochydore police?” her father’s defence barrister asked, referring to one of her police statements.

She answered: “Correct.”

When asked about another statement, Dawnsong said: “I was scared. He had put the fear of God in me and I remained scared for years.”

In a 2001 police statement, Dawnsong said she had been “terrified” of her father, adding: “I still am.”

She rejected suggestions she had changed her story to police over the years to “blow up” her father’s alibi.

Dawnsong also rejected suggestions she had changed her story because she hated her father and was therefore prepared to lie.

“I still hate him,” Dawnsong said. “I’m not lying.”

Queensland cold case detectives announced a $500,000 reward for information about Rose’s death in 2023.

Lees was finally contacted by police in June that year. Officers arranged for him to be interviewed the following day, but he fled.

Cold case detectives tracked Lees across Australia, through regional Victoria and the Northern Territory, before he was arrested in Dural, in Sydney’s north-west.

Outside court on Wednesday, an emotional Booth told reporters she remembered Rose as a “very bright and happy girl”.

“We were all sad in our workplace when we found out that she was dead ... She was a lovely, vivacious girl,” she said.

“It’s amazing after 29 years that this has come back, it was very strange.”

The committal hearing is scheduled to continue on Thursday.

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