Mystery stays over how a retired faculty trainer ended up inside a wheelie bin in suburban Brisbane

A coroner has ruled a retired school teacher is dead but mystery still remains as to how she met her fate inside a suburban wheelie bin. 

Retired school teacher Lesley Trotter, 78, was reported missing from her unit in Toowong, a riverside suburb in Brisbane‘s inner-west, in March 2023.

Police have determined Ms Trotter was inside a wheelie bin when it was picked up by a council rubbish truck from Clayton Lane on the morning of March 28. 

However, it remains unclear whether the 78-year-old was already dead when the bin was picked up and taken to a waste transfer station. 

Ms Trotter’s brother reported her missing after he arrived at her home and found the front door unlocked with her phone and wallet inside. 

In April 2023, traces of Ms Trotter’s blood was discovered near bins that she would regularly rummage through to sort recyclables.

Authorities went through 3,000 tonnes of rubbish at a number of waste stations across Brisbane but never found her body.

Coroner Donald MacKenzie has now ruled that Ms Trotter is dead but that the cause of her death remains ‘undetermined’.

Retired school teacher Lesley Trotter, 87, was found to have died after being found in a wheelie bin on Clayton Lane, in Brisbane’s inner-west, in March 2023

Ms Trotter would regularly sort through bins to find items she could recycle, a practice that left some in her neighbourhood ‘really unhappy’.  

The retiree was leaving rubbish on the ground and in the driveway as she rummaged through causing ‘some angst among some people’ in her street, police said. 

There has been a number of theories regarding how Ms Trotter ended up in the wheelie bin, including a medical episode or that she climbed inside herself. 

The Coroners Court of Queensland issued a statement following the ruling. 

‘The coronial investigation into the death of Ms Lesley Trotter is now finalised, with chamber findings provided to the family,’ a spokesperson said.

‘Coroner MacKenzie found that Ms Trotter is deceased but the cause of her death remains undetermined. 

‘No further information will be released at this time.’

Detective Superintendent Andrew Massingham said at the time of Ms Trotter’s disappearance there ‘had been some complaints made’ about her recycling habit.

Authorities searched through more than 3,000 tonnes of rubbish to find Ms Trotter but never found her body (pictured, officers at waste sites)

‘It is well known that if residents [in her neighbourhood] put their bins out and there was recycling in the general waste bin then she would want to correct that,’ he said. 

‘There were some people that were unhappy about that process.

‘We have not ruled out that this activity is in some way linked to her death.’