A Tasmanian woman who accused her stepmother of smothering her father with a pillow had a "clear motive" for the "scurrilous allegation", a coroner has found.
In his record of investigation, coroner Rob Webster found the 76-year-old man died of natural causes and wrote that it was "regrettable scarce resources had to be diverted" to "discount what can only be described as a scurrilous allegation".
Court documents show the man and woman married in South Australia in 1975 and had no children together.
He had three children from a previous marriage, but only had a "lasting relationship" with one of them — a daughter.
They moved to Tasmania in the 1990s, eventually retiring in 2015.
In 2020, the man became very unwell and was taken to hospital.
Mr Webster wrote that "because of his very poor prognosis he was provided with palliative care".
Daughter called police with allegation
The woman then told his sister and daughter of his "impending death".
His daughter came to the hospital to be with him and a bed was made up so both his wife and the daughter could stay overnight.
Mr Webster wrote that the daughter "went to sleep while [the man's wife] comforted her husband until he passed away".
A few days later, Mr Webster wrote that Senior Constable Alicia Barnes received a call from the daughter "in which she said she believed her stepmother had smothered her father with a pillow".
The daughter gave a statement to police about a comment she claimed her stepmother made to her before his death.
"At some stage during the conversation, [she] said to me that it would be better to put a pillow over dad's face," she said.
"At no stage did I see [her] put a pillow over dad's face. There was no-one else in the room at the time when [she] said this. I told [her] that she could not do that as dad would know what was going on.
"I think I slept for 90 minutes to two hours before [she] woke me and said that dad had passed away. [She] told me that she had been trying to wake me."
The daughter told police she did not know if her stepmother had caused his death.
"I don't know exactly what happened to dad, if it was natural causes or if [she] has done something to him. If [she] has done something to dad, I don't know why she didn't just wait for the drugs to take dad," she said.
Dispute over assets
In his report, Mr Webster noted that both daughter and wife agreed "there was a dispute over his assets and the nature of his funeral service".
He said the daughter conceded in her affidavit that she did not "get along all that well with [her]".
Mr Webster also wrote that the wife denied the allegations and told police to "do anything that needed to be done".
A forensic pathologist who examined the man's body found he died of "natural causes namely ischaemic heart disease" and found no evidence to support the smothering claims.
Mr Webster concluded by saying there was no substance in the daughter's allegations and that the cause of smothering could be ruled out.
"[The daughter], when she contacted Senior Constable Barnes, alleged her father had been smothered," he wrote.
"She was not so adamant when she swore her affidavit in that she says she does not know whether he died of natural causes or was smothered.
"It appears from the evidence [the daughter] has a clear motive to make the allegation she made."
