Two men sentenced to life in prison for murdering Caboolture grandmother
Two men who murdered Donna Howe in an "act of extreme cowardice" at her home before discarding her body "like rubbish" have been handed life sentences.
Clinton Oliver, aged 45, and Braydon Franklin, aged 35, have been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Donna Howe, a 57-year-old grandmother from Caboolture. The bodies of the victim were discovered in the Beerburrum State Forest in June 2022. The two men will serve a minimum of 21 years before being eligible for parole.
At the Brisbane Supreme Court, Oliver and Franklin were described as lacking any human decency for their act of extreme cowardice. Donna Howe was last seen by her daughter a month before her murder on Mother's Day and was killed at her own home later that night. The men pleaded guilty to moving the victim's body and were convicted of murder by a jury on Tuesday.
They were each sentenced to a life term for murder with a minimum non-parole period of 20 years, plus an additional five years for interfering with a corpse. The court heard that tensions arose between the roommates, who suspected Donna Howe of stealing their belongings. On the night of the murder, the victim was attacked and killed in her living room, with her body wrapped in a rug and left in a car overnight. The following evening, the men set her body alight in a Sunshine Coast forest.
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