EXCLUSIVE
A top barrister cried in the arms of a friend who she credited with ‘saving’ her, just weeks before she was allegedly bludgeoned to death in a five-star hotel.
Alice Rose McShera’s body was found in a suite at Crown Towers in Perth at around 11am on Monday, after the 34-year-old was allegedly beaten to death with a blunt object by her boyfriend, Cameron John Pearson.
Pearson, 42, fronted Perth Magistrates Court on Tuesday morning charged with murder.
can reveal that Ms McShera sought comfort in a friend, who did not want to be named, in text messages sent just a fortnight before her death.
‘A few weeks ago, you cried in my arms and we hugged with happiness that you felt you looked like your old self again,’ the friend said.
Alice Rose McShera’s (pictured) body was found in a suite at Crown Towers in Perth at around 11am on Monday, after the 34-year-old was allegedly beaten to death with a blunt object by her boyfriend, Cameron John Pearson
Ms McShera sought comfort in a friend, who wished to remain anonymous, in text messages sent just a fortnight before her death (pictured)
The friend posted messages she had shared with Ms McShera in the days before her death in which she appeared to be feeling positive and happy in herself.
‘No filter needed,’ Ms McShera captioned a beaming selfie.
‘This smile is all coz (sic) of you. Da b**** is back.’
In another message, Ms McShera told her friend ‘you’ve saved me twice now and that deserves recognition’.
Ms McShera had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder after going missing in bad weather during a girls trip to Bunker Bay in the Margaret River region in June 2021.
Police launched a search party after she vanished during a storm, only to turn up 12 hours later without any clothes on.
She spent time at a mental health facility before returning to her high-powered job in the family courts.
Ms McShera’s boyfriend Cameron John Pearson (pictured), 42, fronted Perth Magistrates Court on Tuesday morning charged with her murder
The pair had been together since January when she represented him during a custody battle
It comes after revealed Ms McShera and her boyfriend had broken up and got back together just weeks before her alleged murder.
The pair had been together since January.
Ms McShera’s friend, who did not want to be identified, told the little girl had been in the hotel room with the couple in the hours before Ms McShera’s death.
She explained the couple were holidaying together in Tasmania in September, before they had a ‘huge fight’ and broke up.
The friend did not know what their argument was about – but said Pearson ‘did stay away for a while’.
The couple, however, rekindled their relationship in October when she asked him to help her move house.
On Thursday last week, they checked into the Crown Towers ahead of a gala hosted by the WA Law Society held the following evening.
In Ms McShera’s final social media post, she said she was ‘spending the night before my next surgery…drinking Dom (Perignon champagne), watching old dvds and loving life’
On Sunday, Pearson had been taking care of his daughter.
According to the friend, the couple returned the child to her grandparents at 5pm before going back to the hotel where a short time later Ms McShera wrote her last-ever Facebook post.
It struck a similarly upbeat tone to the messages she had shared with her hairdresser.
‘Spending the night before my next surgery… drinking Dom (Perignon champagne), watching old dvds and loving life,’ she wrote above a photo inside the suite, which included the bottle of wine and a child’s cot.
It is believed the surgery was a follow-up procedure to an earlier stomach operation.
Later that night, a family member made a desperate call to the hotel urging staff to make contact with Ms McShera.
Ms McShera was found unresponsive in Perth’s Crown Towers Hotel on Monday alongside Pearson, who had suffered what are believed to be self-inflicted injuries
Hotel staff found her body on Monday morning. Mr Pearson was taken to hospital with what are believed to be self-inflicted wounds, before he was charged with murder.
The friend said Mr Pearson’s parents are ‘devastated’.
He appeared in court on Tuesday, supported by his family.
About half a dozen members of Perth’s legal fraternity sat in the public gallery showing obvious distress.
‘I hope that Cameron is able to remember what happened because… didn’t even realise that he’d been to court that day,’ the friend said.
Ms McShera allegedly suffered head injuries consistent with a ‘blunt instrument’
‘He doesn’t know what’s happened.’
Mr Pearson was not required to enter a plea and twice refused to acknowledge that he understood the charge despite speaking with his lawyer Reid Hogan during the proceedings.
He instead shrugged his shoulders in answer to Magistrate Stephen Butcher’s questions before being led out of the glass-walled defendants’ dock.
On Wednesday, his sister Jessica Pearson had tears in her eyes when she told the situation was ‘awful’, but explained her family did not want to comment on the tragedy.
Ms McShera worked mainly in Family Court and was based at the Murray Chambers in the Perth CBD, according to its website.
She had more than 10 years experience as an advocate and barrister and was a member of the Family Law Practitioners Association of Western and the Law Society of Western .
She has also appeared in the WA Supreme Court and Magistrates Court and previously worked as an associate to a WA Family Court judge.
Price Family Law paid tribute to their colleague Alice on Thursday, praising her ‘passion, skill, dedication, and hilarious sense of humour’.
‘Alice touched so many lives, and was a fearless and brave advocate.’
For confidential crisis support call Lifeline on 13 11 14