It was about 3.30am and Mrs Crawford was in her pyjamas.
At the Brisbane Supreme Court on Monday, a jury heard that the scene had been staged by her husband, Robert John Crawford, to cover up her murder.
It was alleged he had strangled his wife and that she was already dead, dying or unconscious by the time the mower was toppled off the wall and she was moved into position.
It has set the scene for an anticipated three-week trial which will hear evidence of multiple infidelities by Robert Crawford and an extensive list of demands and deal-breakers by his late wife.
By any measure it was, both the Crown and defence counsel agreed, a toxic marriage.
The defendant, a former RAAF pilot who has pleaded not guilty to murder, was described by prosecutor Chris Cook as a Top Gun in his professional life - and as a terrible husband with an extensive list of infidelities.
The pair had been in and out of counselling and the marriage was functionally dead by the time of Frances Crawford's death, with both parties wanting it over, Mr Cook said.
Just a few days before her death, Frances told her sister that she wished her husband would die in a car crash, so tired was she of dealing with his infidelities and emotional abuse.
The jury also heard Crawford was financially motivated to kill his wife.
He had planned to retire at 50, and their sprawling property near Toowoomba, in the highlands west of Brisbane, was conservatively valued at $2 million.
His wife's life insurance was valued at a further $860,000, and he was the sole beneficiary in her will, jurors were told.
A costly divorce settlement would have forced Crawford back to work.
The court also heard that Frances Crawford kept her philandering husband under close surveillance, and gave him an extensive list of boundaries and conditions to abide by if he wanted to stay in the marriage.
These included regularly submitting to polygraph tests - which Crawford allegedly boasted to a lover he could beat - church attendance and receipts for any spending over $30, including food and groceries.
There were also consequences for infractions, including house chores such as cleaning out cupboards and window tracks, jurors were told.
"Deal breakers" included masturbation.
Barrister Saul Holt KC told the jury that the circumstantial case amounted to a 1000-piece jigsaw, and they had been shown just six pieces of the wrong shape.
He said text messages between the couple late on the night of Mrs Crawford's death were crucial to the case.
The trial, before Justice Lincoln Crowley, resumes on Thursday.
