A Zumba instructor accused of killing his girlfriend and possibly dumping her body in a suburban Brisbane tip told detectives “I didn’t do it” during his police interview, moments after being shown photos of authorities excavating his front yard.
Priscilla Brooten, a US citizen, disappeared in 2018 from the Brisbane home she shared with her boyfriend, Mark Sheridan Waden. Her body was never found.
Waden, who she had met through Zumba classes in 2016, is now facing a Supreme Court trial over her alleged murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
On Wednesday, the jury was shown a police interview from June 2019 that lasted more than 90 minutes. In it, Waden detailed how his relationship with Brooten deteriorated when he started a new job in real estate, working long hours and having less time for a social life, and as a result of Brooten’s mental health.
He said the situation got worse when he discovered she had been in Australia illegally, and he feared the legal consequences of that.
Waden told police he was hurt about what the relationship had become, and as far as he was concerned, Brooten had been using him to stay in the country.
He said she had been spending his money, while also relying financially on her ex-boyfriend, Steve Thompson.
“Finding out about her past, her aliases, different surnames, she wasn’t a nice person,” he told police.
Waden told detectives he did not see how that was a difficult thing to understand, given that Brooten had been using false names for whatever illegal activity she was doing online.
He said she was “very secretive” about her laptop. He described her life as “very closed”, and did not want to speak about her past.
In the interview, Waden was pressed over his claims that one day in 2018, he returned home to discover Brooten had left, taking with her about three suitcases worth of clothing. He told police he assumed this was because he had told her he wanted the relationship to end, and he had threatened to call immigration officials on her.
The jury has so far heard that Waden allegedly factory reset Brooten’s phone after her disappearance, and gave the device to his new girlfriend, Desiree Hatzipapas.
Waden told police during the interview that he began dating Hatzipapas around the time his relationship with Brooten broke down.
The court earlier heard Brooten had discovered messages between the pair.
Throughout the interview, Waden expressed concern about the fact he was due to pick up Hatzipapas from the airport at that point.
Towards the end of the interview, he was told police were excavating his yard, and showed him photos of the scene.
“Considering my yard is being dug up and whatever else has been happening in my house, I think I’d like a lawyer or solicitor present, considering where this direction is heading now,” he said.
When asked if he understood that he was under arrest in relation to Brooten’s possible murder, Waden said: “Yeah, I didn’t do it.”
Earlier in the interview, he was asked if he organised to drive Brooten’s Volkswagen Golf to Scarborough, where her ex-boyfriend lived. Waden said: “No.”
He was pressed over what happened to Brooten’s phone.
“So, you’re telling us that she left the phone at your house, pin locked, then you give that phone to Desiree?” detective Anthea Johnston asked.
Waden answered: “I reset the phone. You enter … an incorrect code like, I got online, and I looked and she entered the code like 10 times and it factory resets the phone.”
“Why would you do that if it’s Priscilla’s phone?” he was asked.
“She never collected it. It was sitting there. She had every opportunity to come and do it and, as I said, I assumed she left it there because I threatened to call immigration on her.”
He also said he believed Brooten left the phone because it could be tracked by the SIM card.
When talking about their relationship, Waden said he had restrained Brooten, or put her in a bear hug. He also told police he slapped her in one incident.
Before Brooten is alleged to have disappeared, Waden had his first listing in his new job as an agent at Bees Nees Realty in late June. He told police Brooten knew it was important, given that it was his first listing.
In the interview, he told police he had been arguing with her that day, prompting him to tell his boss he would not make the listing.
“I pulled over on the side of the road because it was so heated,” he said, explaining that was at Milton McDonald’s in Brisbane. He admitted he lied to his boss, saying he was with police that day because he did not want to lose his job.
He told police Brooten had threatened to smash things in his home.
He also told police he lied to Hatzipapas about aspects of his relationship with Brooten because Brooten was still living with him and he did not want to break up something that was starting with Hatzipapas.
Cloe Read is the crime and court reporter at Brisbane Times.Connect via X or email.
