Toolbox murderers: Queensland men who tortured and drowned pair, sentenced after retrial

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Three men found guilty of murdering a man and a woman who were tortured for hours before drowning in a toolbox are set to be sentenced.

Cory Breton, 28, and Iuliana Triscaru, 31, were killed at Kingston in Logan, south of Brisbane, on January 24, 2016.

The pair had been beaten, stabbed and choked before they were stuffed into a two-metre-long toolbox.

They were likely “screaming for their lives” when the container was later dumped in a nearby lagoon.

Almost 10 years later, Stou Daniels, Davy Malu, Junior Taiao and Trent Michael Thrupp were found guilty of the pair’s murder for a second time.

A Queensland Supreme Court jury returned its verdict on June 20 after deliberating for more than two days.

They faced a retrial in Brisbane after the Court of Appeal set aside murder convictions in July 2024.

Mr Breton and Ms Triscaru had been lured to a Kingston unit before being attacked by a group of men over a drug-dealing dispute.

The men drank whiskey and played video games for hours after torturing the pair and forcing them into the toolbox.

Cloths and bleach used to clean bloodstains in the unit were thrown into the toolbox before it was taken away, with Mr Breton and Ms Triscaru still inside.

The terrified pair made so much noise as the container was being moved, music from an awaiting ute was turned up in a bid to conceal it.

Thrupp either threw the toolbox, weighed down by concrete, into nearby Scrubby Creek or was present when it happened, Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane told the jury.

Daniels and Taiao were also liable for murder by forcing the victims into the toolbox hours before their deaths, he said.

Police divers found the bodies locked in the toolbox submerged in the lagoon two weeks later.

Justice Glenn Martin is set to sentence the trio on Thursday.

A murder conviction carries a mandatory life sentence in Queensland, with a standard 20-year non-parole period.