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A man allegedly shot himself to create a case of self-defence after he attacked his secret lover's ex-partner with an axe and left him a quadriplegic, a court has heard.
The arrest of Zacharia Josef Bruckner in Brisbane follows academic Lisa Lines being detained on a tiny Pacific Island two years after she vanished following an alleged love triangle bloodbath.
Dr Lines, a mother-of-two, is being held on Koror, a lonely speck of land in the Palau archipelago 1,000km east of the Philippines in the western Pacific Ocean.
The 43-year-old, who has a PhD in history and ran an academic editing business, disappeared in 2021, sparking an Interpol alert and international manhunt until her arrest this week.
Australian academic Dr Lisa Lines has been arrested in the tiny Pacific archipelago of Palau two years after she vanished following a love triangle bloodbath which left her ex-partner a quadriplegic
Lisa Lines's onetime lover Zacharia Josef Bruckner is pictured on Friday arriving at Adelaide Airport escorted by detectives after being extradited from Queensland
Bruckner, her 36-year-old former lodger and secret lover, was also arrested on Wednesday on a warrant for attempted murder and two counts of conspiracy to murder in South Australia.
The arrests follow the re-investigation of an attack on Dr Lines's ex-partner Jonathon Hawtin, 30, at a property in the Adelaide Hills in 2017.
Mr Hawtin was struck repeatedly on the neck and head with an axe, suffering devastating injuries including paralysis in all four limbs.
He is permanently confined to a wheelchair and requires round-the-clock care.
Bruckner was found at the scene suffering a gunshot wound which Mr Hawtin was accused of inflicting after learning he had started a relationship with Dr Lines.
Mr Hawtin, who denied shooting Bruckner, was charged with attempted murder but acquitted after a trial in the Supreme Court of South Australia in 2019.
Zacharia Josef Bruckner allegedly shot himself to create a case of self-defence after he attacked his secret lover Lisa Lines' ex-partner Jonathon Hawkin with an axe and left him quadriplegic, a court has heard
Police now allege Bruckner shot himself to establish a case of self-defence after he and Dr Lines tried to kill Mr Hawkin.
Bruckner appeared in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Wednesday when detectives from Adelaide sought his extradition to South Australia.
Prosecutor Eddie Fraser told the court police had gathered evidence that Dr Lines coerced Mr Bruckner into trying to murder Mr Hawtin with a hatchet, according to Adelaide Now.
Mr Hawtin, the father of Dr Lines's children, was found in a pool of blood outside her home at Littlehampton alongside Mr Bruckner.
Mr Fraser said police would allege Dr Lines made another attempt at killing Mr Hawtin by asking a female friend to smother him while he was recovering from the axe attack in hospital.
'The female was stopped by hospital security guards outside Hawtin's room before she fled the scene,' Mr Fraser told the court.
Jonathon Hawtin (pictured) the father of Dr Lines's children, was left paralysed from the neck down and is now permanently confined to a wheelchair and requires round-the-clock care
He said Bruckner and Dr Lines had conspired to murder Mr Hawtin and his mother Rohnda with a hitman 'between December 2021 and the present day'.
Mr Fraser alleged Bruckner had told a person 'known to police' he had struck Mr Hawtin with a hatchet and did not think he would survive.
'Bruckner then shot himself in the hip to create a self-defence case,' he said.
'Bruckner explained that Lines entered the garage upon hearing the gunshot, Lines then called Triple Zero and whilst on the phone in the garage Hawtin made a noise so Bruckner struck him two further times with the hatchet.'
The court heard Bruckner, who did not appear in court on Wednesday, had been employed by the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority.
He did not oppose the extradition application, which was granted by magistrate Rosemary Gilbert, and is due to appear in Adelaide Magistrates Court on Friday.
Mr Hawtin was found in a pool of blood outside her home at Littlehampton alongside Mr Bruckner. A bloodied hatchet (above) was found at the home
Bruckner had been living with and working for Dr Lines prior to the axe attack on Mr Hawtin, from whom she had split three months earlier.
She was a witness at Mr Hawtin's 2019 trial.
During the four-week hearing, it emerged Dr Lines wanted to separate from Mr Hawtin in June 2017, and two months later she started a relationship with Bruckner.
She denied wanting Mr Hawtin 'out of the picture' to avoid ongoing shared custody of their children. Dr Lines was no longer dated Bruckner either, she said at the trial.
Dr Lines also refuted suggestions she was then involved in a relationship with a woman she met on a dating app.
The Supreme Court heard Mr Hawtin went to his ex-partner's home to show Bruckner his gun collection before allegedly shooting him with a rifle.
The court was told Mr Hawtin suspected Bruckner had been having an affair with Dr Lines after he had been living with the couple for 'years'.
Dr Lisa Lines, 43, is being held on tiny 4km-long Koror, a lonely speck of land making up part of the Palau archipelago, population 18,024, lying 1,000km east of the Philippines and 1,000km north of Indonesia in the western Pacific Ocean
The couple insisted they did not begin a sexual relationship until August 2017 and believed they had kept it secret prior to the attack in October.
South Australia Police Major Crime Investigation Branch launched a review into the case in 2020 and revealed in 2021 that Dr Lines had vanished overseas with her children.
A warrant for her arrest was issued in August 2022 and detectives used overseas police and federal authorities to track Dr Lines down to her remote Pacific hideaway home.
Koror is just 4km-long Koror and has a population of about 18,000.
A suppression order prohibiting the publication of the details of the case was revoked on Thursday.
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