Warning: This article contains descriptions of violence against children.
It was the Christmas and New Year period of 2021 into 2022, and Charlise Mutten was staying with her mother and her mother's fiance at a lavish property in the NSW Blue Mountains.
The nine-year-old lived in Queensland with her grandparents. She was only visiting Kallista Mutten and Justin Stein for a few weeks over the school holidays.
They were staying at the Wildenstein Private Gardens in Mount Wilson — a fancy wedding venue owned by the Stein family.
Watch: Justin Stein's murder trial.
Police were told the little girl was last seen on the veranda of the property on Thursday, January 13. Her mother reported her missing on Friday morning.
We now know she died sometime between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
In the days after her disappearance, hundreds of police and emergency services searched for her. Dogs, helicopters, SES volunteers and locals all spent five days combing the dense Blue Mountains bushland.
Stein was interviewed as part of those investigations, and he claimed at the time to have also told his fiance, that her daughter may have been taken by people involved with his criminal past.
Stein and Mutten had both spent time in prison, in fact, they met while behind bars. He was inside for drug-related offending and she was serving a sentence for dangerous driving causing death. They were both released in 2020.
About an hour from the Mount Wilson property, police found a barrel on the banks of the Colo River. Charlise's body was inside. She had been shot once in the head and once in the lower back. Police also found 99kg of sand that had been used to try and weigh down the barrel.
While searching for Charlise, police had also been retracing Stein's movements. They allege he bought sandbags, refuelled his boat, and visited the Colo River in the days before the little girl was reported missing. They have CCTV footage of the 33-year-old at a BP towing a boat, in the back of which, is allegedly the barrel containing Charlise's body.
He was charged with murder the same day they found her.
Police allege that Stein was alone with Charlise the evening on January 12, when they allege the murder occurred, while her mother was staying at a caravan an hour and a half away from the property. The trio had been dividing their holiday between the Mount Wilson property and Riverview Sky Park location.
On Monday, April 13, 2024, Stein pleaded not guilty to murder on the first day of his six-week trial.
In explosive claims, his defence lawyer told the jury it was Charlise's mother who pulled the trigger, and Stein just helped dispose of the body. He claims he told the original story about 'people involved with his criminal past' to protect her.
Carolyn Davenport SC told the jury they will "have a very different view of Kallista Mutten" after they receive the evidence.
"Charlise was killed... by her mother... near a chicken shed on the property," she told the jury, as reported by The Daily Telegraph.
"He didn’t know what happened to the child, he disposed of the body... he didn’t put the body in the barrel but he did dispose of it."
But the prosecution says phone records showed Mutten acting in a way consistent with the belief that her daughter was missing, including messages to Stein urging him to find her.
Crown Prosecutor Ken McKay SC told the jury Stein pretended he was out searching for Charlise while he was trying to dispose of her body.
He reportedly messaged Mutten the morning after he took Charlise back to the Mount Wilson property telling her, her daughter was "wrecked" and was staying in bed. McKay says he then lied, telling Mutten a woman from an auction company would look after Charlise while he was out.
The court has been told the couple both struggled with mental health issues throughout 2021. Both also struggled with substance abuse — Mutten had been using the drug ice since her early 20s, and Stein was undergoing treatment for heroin addiction.
As the ABC reports, the court heard traces of a drug used to control schizophrenia (which Stein was receiving treatment for) were found in Charlise's system, ingested "either by design or accidentally".
Prior to the alleged murder, Stein and Ms Mutten broke into a neighbour's home near the Mount Wilson property, taking two firearms including a .22 bolt-action hunting rifle, McKay told the jury.
He said one of the guns was "of importance" to the Crown case. The ABC reports a hunting rifle scope, purchased online by Mr Stein, "made its way onto the stolen .22 bolt action rifle".
The 33-year-old was sentenced on Monday to the maximum sentence of life imprisonment, two months after being found guilty. The jury had spent almost two weeks deliberating before delivering its verdict.
In handing down the sentence, Justice Helen Wilson said Stein likely shot the girl once in the back while she was trying to flee, before approaching her and firing another shot directly into her head.
"This was a shockingly callous crime," Ms Wilson said.
"The offender approached Charlise and discharged the second shot at close range. It was not survivable and was not intended to be."
Justice Wilson said during the trial she had witnessed Stein pretending to cry as he gave a "wholly false account" of Charlise's death.
"His voice began to shake and then to break, he reached for a tissue and dabbed at his eyes," the judge said.
"I could see very clearly that despite the offender's presentation of distress, he was completely dry-eyed and did not shed a single tear."
Crown prosecutor Ken McKay SC told the court during a sentencing hearing on Friday that due to the extreme nature of the crime, the only appropriate sentence for Stein was life in prison.
"He went to great lengths to avoid being held responsible for his actions," Mr McKay said.
— With AAP.
This article was originally published in April 2024, and has been updated since with new information.
If this has raised any issues for you, or if you just feel like you need to speak to someone, please call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – the national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service.
Feature image: Facebook.