John Wallace Edwards has been arrested today at his new girlfriend’s home in Redcliffe, Brisbane, for the murder of his estranged wife, missing primary school teacher Sharon Edwards.
Police are also currently searching the home in Lawrence, northern NSW where the couple of 33 years raised their children.
John Wallace is expected to appear at Brisbane Magistrates Court tomorrow, where detectives will seek his extradition to NSW.
It is alleged that Sharon and John Wallace had an argument before she died.
Coffs Clarence Local Area Command Detective Inspector Darren Jameson said: “We are satisfied that an altercation has taken place that has led to the death of Mrs Edwards. And that is the reason why that arrest warrant has been issued.”
Fifty-five-year-old Sharon disappeared from her home, which she once shared with John Wallace, 61, in Grafton in northern NSW after a night out with mates at the Good Intent Hotel on March 14, 2015.
Concerns were raised about her whereabouts when she did not turn up for work at Coutts Crossing Public School on March 16, 2015. Her son Eli Edwards has said that he became worried when Sharon did not respond to photographs he sent to her showing her granddaughter’s first steps.
Police found her car and clothing from the night out, but could not locate her phone or handbag. Her phone data was traced on March 15 to the Lawrence area.
In April 2015, Sharon and John Wallace’s sons, Zac, Josh and Eli, and John Wallace himself, fronted the media, asking for information from the public about Sharon’s disappearance, as the police shifted the focus of their investigation from missing person to homicide.
John Wallace was first identified as a suspect back in 2015, but denied any involvement, describing Sharon as a “lovely person“, and saying at the media conference: “Someone out there must know something… I’ve been just sitting at home wracking my brains out, going crazy.”
The next day, John Wallace confessed that he had been hiding firearms around Grafton, handing over to police a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, before helping them to find other weapons in bushland and near waterways. Police divers also uncovered a school-issued laptop while searching.
John Wallace was sentenced in September 2015 to a year’s jail, with a non-parole period of three months, for unregistered firearm and ammunition possession.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
Photo: Supplied
