Police have charged a man with murder after the body of an elderly woman was found in a burnt-out home in the New South Wales Hunter region.
Emergency services were called to a home in Raymond Terrace about 12:30am on Saturday after reports of an explosion and fire.
Once the fire was extinguished, firefighters discovered the body of a 76-year-old woman who owned the house inside.
The 69-year-old man — who the ABC believes was her carer — was charged with domestic violence-related murder and destroying property with intent to endanger life.
Police investigating the incident were on Saturday examining a possible link between the house fire and a car crash on the Pacific Highway.
They said that about an hour after the fire, the man was involved in a head-on crash with a truck while travelling the wrong way up the Pacific Highway near Bulahdelah, 60 kilometres north of Newcastle, and sustained non life-threatening injuries.
He was refused bail to appear at Newcastle Local Court on September 6.
