‘I didn’t do it’ accused killer tells police after girlfriend’s disappearance

A Zumba instructor accused of killing his girlfriend and possibly dumping her body in a suburban Brisbane tip told detectives “I didn’t do it” during his police interview, moments after being shown photos of authorities excavating his front yard.

Priscilla Brooten, a US citizen, disappeared in 2018 from the Brisbane home she shared with her boyfriend, Mark Sheridan Waden. Her body was never found.

Waden, who she had met through Zumba classes in 2016, is now facing a Supreme Court trial over her alleged murder. He has pleaded not guilty.

On Wednesday, the jury was shown a police interview from June 2019 that lasted more than 90 minutes. In it, Waden detailed how his relationship with Brooten deteriorated when he started a new job in real estate, working long hours and having less time for a social life, and as a result of Brooten’s mental health.

He said the situation got worse when he discovered she had been in Australia illegally, and he feared the legal consequences of that.

Waden told police he was hurt about what the relationship had become, and as far as he was concerned, Brooten had been using him to stay in the country.

He said she had been spending his money, while also relying financially on her ex-boyfriend, Steve Thompson.

“Finding out about her past, her aliases, different surnames, she wasn’t a nice person,” he told police.

Waden told detectives he did not see how that was a difficult thing to understand, given that Brooten had been using false names for whatever illegal activity she was doing online.

He said she was “very secretive” about her laptop. He described her life as “very closed”, and did not want to speak about her past.

In the interview, Waden was pressed over his claims that one day in 2018, he returned home to discover Brooten had left, taking with her about three suitcases worth of clothing. He told police he assumed this was because he had told her he wanted the relationship to end, and he had threatened to call immigration officials on her.

The jury has so far heard that Waden allegedly factory reset Brooten’s phone after her disappearance, and gave the device to his new girlfriend, Desiree Hatzipapas.

Waden told police during the interview that he began dating Hatzipapas around the time his relationship with Brooten broke down.

The court earlier heard Brooten had discovered messages between the pair.

Throughout the interview, Waden expressed concern about the fact he was due to pick up Hatzipapas from the airport at that point.

Towards the end of the interview, he was told police were excavating his yard, and