Sue Neill-Fraser has given her first interview since leaving jail in 2022, telling 60 Minutes she fears for her safety after the gag order attached to her parole conditions was lifted.
"There are huge vested interests in keeping this quiet," she said. She asked that it be known she is "not depressed" and that if she were to die in suspicious circumstances, no one should believe it was self-harm.
Chappell, her partner of nearly 20 years, disappeared from the 53-foot yacht Four Winds moored at Hobart's Sandy Bay on Australia Day 2009. The yacht was found sinking and sabotaged the following morning, with Chappell's blood splattered in the saloon. His body and a weapon were never found.
According to Tasmania Police, Neill-Fraser picked up a large wrench, bashed Chappell to death, winched his body up two sets of stairs and dumped it in the Derwent River. She rejects that account, citing a 35-year-old slipped disc. "I would've had trouble lifting anything over about 10 or 12 kilos," she said. "I can't make it real, even now."
Neill-Fraser admits she gave police reason for suspicion. She told them she had visited a Bunnings store after leaving the yacht; CCTV showed she had not. "I can't to this day account for it," she said. She also lied about staying home that night, when she had actually walked down to Sandy Bay after a distressing phone call about Chappell's youngest daughter. "It was probably the greatest mistake I ever made," she said, explaining she hid the trip to avoid family conflict.
Investigators alleged she was motivated by money. She disputes this, saying she had more than $80,000 in cash, paid for her half of the yacht outright, and owned two rental properties and a farm. "I didn't need money."
In October 2010 a Tasmanian Supreme Court jury unanimously convicted her of murder. She was sentenced to 26 years, reduced on appeal to 23 years with a 13-year non-parole period. She served the full 13 years and launched two unsuccessful appeals.
Neill-Fraser says evidence was presented unfairly, including a luminol photograph shown to the jury as Chappell's blood, although confirmatory tests later proved there was no blood in the dinghy, something she says was never explained in court. "Sitting with a wrongful conviction is like having an infected thorn in your mind," she said. "Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I could be convicted in Australia if I hadn't done anything."
She said she will continue to fight to clear her name.