Emotional son of carer charged with murdering her dying partner breaks his silence: ‘He did everything for mum’

The son of a Queensland woman accused of administering a lethal dose of prescription medication to their terminally ill stepfather has spoken out in his defence, saying he ‘did everything’ for their family. 

Kylie Ellina Truswell-Mobbs, 50, was arrested on Wednesday after the death of David Ronald Mobbs, 56, at Alexandra Hills, in Brisbane’s southeast, in December 2023. 

David was a training officer with the Queensland Fire and Emergency Rescue Services and Kylie was a nail technician and hairdresser.

‘He did everything for mum, myself and my brother,’ son Jayden told The Courier Mail from outside Brisbane Magistrates Court on Thursday. 

‘He was a good man that decided to take on a single mother with two kids.’

Jayden said the brothers’ considered their stepfather a friend who would take them to sporting events and other activities.

‘As you can imagine it’s a quite traumatic experience for the family to have gone through. It’s very emotional, it’s a very sad story unfortunately,’ he said. 

Police launched a taskforce to investigate Mr Mobbs death after finding ‘suspicious’ lethal levels of prescription medication in his blood. 

Kylie Truswell-Mobbs is seen during her arrest at an Alexandra Hills 

Mr Mobbs had motorneurone disease and was in and out of hospital but detectives charged Truswell-Mobbs with murder and alleged she ‘took unlawful actions in administering lethal levels of prescription medication to accelerate’ his death.

Police said on Thursday there had been preliminary discussions between Mr Mobbs’ family around assisted dying, but that option had not been formalised.

‘There is a process you need to go through with assisted dying and in this situation none of those processes were followed,’ Detective Acting Inspector Rod Watts said. 

‘Our evidence and investigations lead us to believe it is the offence of murder and not assisted suicide.’

Police will allege toxicology and forensic tests show Mr Mobbs had lethal levels of his prescribed pain medication in his system.

‘The acceleration of death, I can say, was limited to hours after he was administered the prescription medication, within hours he was deceased,’ Det Insp Watts said.

Police said Truswell-Mobbs lived with Mr Mobbs who he had been in a relationship with for years. She was also his carer along with a care agency and other family.

Det Insp Watts said Truswell-Mobbs had spoken to police and investigators would claim there was a motive for the alleged murder, but refused to disclose further. 

Ms Truswell-Mobbs is taken away by police before she was charged with murdering her partner David Mobbs

However, he did say police were not investigating any alleged financial gain from Mr Mobb’s death.

‘It’s not your straight-up homicide that you normally investigate. These things take time,’ Det Insp Watts said.

Officers responded to the ‘suspicious death’ just before 10pm on December 7, 2023.

Both Mr Mobbs’ family and care agency had reported his death to police.

‘It’s quite a traumatic experience for the family. It’s a very emotional thing. It’s a very sad story unfortunately. Police will put support in place,’ Det Insp Watts said.

Truswell-Mobbs was arrested on Wednesday after officers attended an Alexandra Hills address, police said.

Her case was briefly mentioned in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Thursday but she was not required to appear.

Her solicitor Andrew Hanlon did not apply for bail and sought an adjournment which police prosecutor Sergeant Duncan Erskine did not oppose.

Magistrate Rosemary Gilbert adjourned the matter to April 28 and remanded Truswell-Mobbs in custody.