READER WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
HIS estranged wife lying shot in the chest and gasping for air, Keith Owen Goodbun and his daughter wrestled for control of a rifle on the verandah of the family’s home at Horseshoe Bend in Maitland.
“Get off and let go of the gun,” Goodbun barked at his daughter
about 3am on October 7 last year. “I won’t shoot your mother
again.”
Moments earlier, Goodbun’s daughter had tried in vain to empty
the remaining bullets into the roof and save her mother’s life.
But now she relinquished her grip. Goodbun stood up, pointed the
gun at his wife, 59-year-old Molly Goodbun, and shot her in the
head.
“I hope she f---ing dies,” Goodbun said. “She has caused me enough hurt and pain.”
Goodbun’s daughter tried desperately to provide first aid and
comfort her mother, telling her father: “Look what you’ve done
to her, f---ing help her.”
“I’m not gonna f---ing help her,” Goodbun snapped back.
Then he pointed the rifle at his wife of more than 40 years, and, as his daughter threw a piece of furniture at him, shot her again.
Goodbun turned the rifle towards his daughter and screamed: “Get
the f--- out of here or you’re next, you’re lucky I haven’t done
it already”. Goodbun’s daughter kissed her mother on the arm and
said “I have to go, I love you” before running to a neighbour’s
property.
She heard the fourth and final gunshot after she left.
The details of Molly Goodbun’s brutal and tragic death can be
revealed after Goodbun pleaded guilty to murder in Newcastle
Local Court on Wednesday.
Bald, with a grey beard, Goodbun, 61, sat quietly and stared
straight ahead during his appearance on audio-visual link from
Long Bay Correctional Centre.
After the breakdown of their marriage and during an ongoing dispute about the sale of the Horseshoe Bend property, Goodbun had become increasingly angry and unstable, according to an agreed statement of facts.
He was charged by police in June 2016 with assaulting Ms Goodbun
and damaging property, with police taking out an apprehended
violence order against Goodbun on behalf of his wife.
On October 6, he put his plan in motion, arming himself with the
Winchester model 320-bolt action rifle and a hunting knife, and
burning the caravan he had been living in at Taree.
He stopped a few times for food and to sleep on the drive between Taree and Maitland, arriving in Horseshoe Bend about 2.50am. He let the car roll quietly to a stop outside his estranged wife’s house, got out and walked up the driveway before returning to the car and grabbing the gun.
Ms Goodbun had just woken up to go to the bathroom when she heard a noise at the door. She opened it to see Goodbun standing there, the pair argued and Goodbun tried to force his way into the home.
The pair wrestled on the verandah as their daughter went to raise the alarm out on the street.
Before police could arrive, Goodbun shot his wife in the chest and three times in the head. She died at the scene.
Goodbun had initially planned to murder his wife, kill himself and burn down the Horseshoe Bend property. He had also considered firing his remaining bullets at the first police officers to arrive on scene, but changed his mind when he realised “they’ve got a job to do”.
Besides, Keith Goodbun thought, he would be quite happy to go to jail.
“I can go to jail for 30 f---ing years and get a bed and breakfast every day,” Goodbun told detectives during his police interview. “I know where I’m going. And I’m quite f---ing happy about it, I tell you, quite happy about it.”
He will appear in Sydney Supreme Court next year.