View
comments
Guilty: Margaret Vandergulik, pictured during her trial, has confessed to killing her husband two days after they were married
A bride has pleaded guilty to killing her husband two days after their wedding - and one day after he changed his will to leave her £425,600.
Margaret Vandergulik was charged with the murder of Patrick Plumbe, 60, at his home in northeast Victoria, in Australia, in April, 2005.
His body was found in his burnt-out ute the day after he changed his will to make his new wife the sole beneficiary of a AUS$1 million (£425,600) superannuation fund - and just two days after their wedding.
Today Vandergulik, 61, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, according to Australian reports.
Initially she had denied the charges - levelled against her when a former lover, Tony Calandro, told police that she killed Mr Plumbe during an argument.
She claimed her new husband hit her with a chair. When she pushed him away, she said, he hit his head on the floor and died, according to Mr Calandrop
The prosecution alleged that Vandergulik’s son helped her put Mr Plumbe’s body in his car and helped stage a car accident, setting the car alight.
Prosecutors said Vandergulik, formerly a nurse, knew Mr Plumbe was alive when she set the car on fire.
Police initially believed Mr Plumbe died in the crash. But when Mr Calandro told them about Vandergulik's confession a year later, Mr Plumbe’s body was exhumed and a skull fracture was found that was not consistent with the impact of the crash.
Vandergulik initially denied she killed Plumbe.
"Would I be that f***ing stupid to kill my husband two days after marrying him and the day after signing the wills?" she told police in an interview in June 2006, Australia newspaper The Age reported.
Vandergulik reportedly went to great lengths to discredit Mr Calandro's story - even shooting herself in the hand and claiming he had shot her.
Her son Michael Vandergulik, 22, had also been charged with murder, but the prosecution announced before the trial began that they would not proceed with his charge.
The trial took place in the same courthouse where the couple exchanged their vows. Australian newspapers quoted witnesses as saying they showed no emotion for one another during the ceremony.
Vandergulik was remanded in custody for a pre-sentence hearing next month.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3IpbCmmZmhe6S7ja6iaKaVrMBwrdGtoJyklWJ%2BcYKYcGhtZ3KntqWxjKmjnpmUqHqowcilq7Jlm565rbXNoGShraOXrq%2BwjJ2YsqtdrLKlsMinnmZllJbGbq%2FHmqWgnZRixKq4y2efraWc