Blood-soaked nightmare: Inside Qld’s homicide houses
Would you live in a house where a homicide has taken place if it was your dream home? We take a look inside seven homes across Queensland with a dark history.
Police & Courts
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How would you feel if you found your dream home but discovered a murder or manslaughter had occurred inside? Would you still move in?
Inside some homes across Queensland, tragic events have taken place involving hammers to the head, fatal shootings and stabbings.
While Queensland does not technically require landlords or realtors to disclose if there has been a homicide committed in a dwelling, there is a volunteer-driven website which lists “stigmatised properties” that have a dark past.
In April 2011, Samantha Ann Brownlow, 45, and son Corey James Lovell, 21, bludgeoned stepfather and grandfather, Robin Behrendorff, 69, to death under the assumption that Brownlow was the sole beneficiary to his estate.
Mr Behrendorff was then left to bleed out in the early hours of the morning on the floor of his home at 7 Baldry Street, Burnett Heads, north of the Sunshine Coast.
Since then, property data from realestate.com.au shows the house was sold in May 2014 for $499,000, after the killer pair were sentenced to 25 years in jail each for murder in September 2013.
Ahead, we list six other properties that have been bloodstained from slain victims and the acts of violent murderers.
Delfin Drive, MacGregor
Skin doctor Dr Luping Zeng, 56, was fatally shot in the chest in the garage of his home in MacGregor, south of Brisbane, with his daughters and wife just a few rooms away.
On the night of April 15, 2019 at around 11:40pm, Dr Zeng was preparing for work in the garage when two men and a teenager committed the violent act after travelling to the premises in a stolen car.
While he was conscious on the way to Princess Alexandra Hospital, his condition worsened and he died at the hospital.
Billy Smith, 20, and Joshua Hamilton, 19, were charged and pleaded guilty to manslaughter while a 17-year-old teenage boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to murder.
The 17-year-old at the time was sentenced to 10 years in jail and will be released on parole in 2025 after he has served six years.
Detective Superintendent Tony Fleming said he didn’t believe Dr Zeng was known to the perpetrators.
“It’s likely this was a crime of opportunity that’s escalated and resulted in the death of Dr Zeng,” Det Supt Fleming said.
According to data from realestate.com.au, the property was last sold in April 2007 for $1.038 million and is currently off the market.
Brookfield Road, Brookfield
More than ten years ago, Gerard Baden-Clay, 41, was sentenced to life in prison for murdering his late wife Allison.
Ten days after her husband reported her missing on April 20, 2012 from their home on Brookfield Road, Brookfield, west of Brisbane, police retrieved her body from under the Kholo Bridge Crossing, approximately 13kms from their home.
Upon investigation of Ms Baden-Clay’s body, leaves found in her hair matched those in their property’s garden and scratch marks on Baden-Clay’s face were typical of fingernail scratch marks.
Baden-Clay was sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 15 years, meaning he is eligible to be released as soon as 2027.
Their daughters Ella, Sarah and Hannah were just five, eight and 10, respectively, at the time of their mother’s murder.
In 2014, the Brookfield Road house was listed for rent by Harcourts in Kenmore which was met with outrage from the community.
According to data from realestate.com.au, the property was last sold in September 1997 for 340,000 and is currently off the market.
Grass Tree Close, Bridgeman Downs
In one of Queensland’s most brutal murders, Neelma Singh, 24, and siblings Sidhi, 12, and Kunal, 18, were found dead at their home in Bridgeman Downs, north of Brisbane, on April 20, 2003.
In the home on Grass Tree Close, Neelma’s partner at the time, Max Sica, allegedly dumped the three bodies into a spa after strangling Neelma and attacking her siblings in their bedrooms.
It was said during the trial that this was allegedly because her siblings would be able to identify him.
Sica was sentenced to life in prison and, at the time, the longest non-parole time of 35 years in July 2012.
Sica said in court he didn’t kill “no one”.
“The Queensland justice system is corrupt,” Sica said.
According to data from realestate.com.au, the property was last sold in October 2000 for $160,000 and is currently off the market.
Matas Drive, Pimpama
Two deaths occurred in a property on Matas Drive, Pimpama, north of the Gold Coast.
David Bradford, 52, stabbed his estranged wife Teresa Bradford, 40, to death before killing himself on January 31, 2017, all in front of their three children.
Bradford had been in jail just two weeks before the murder after being charged with assault occasioning bodily harm, deprivation of liberty, unlawful strangling, and common assault related to domestic violence.
Ms Bradford had allegedly had her mouth gaffer-taped shut, punched to the point she blacked out and dragged by her hair across the floor during a horrific attack in November, 2016.
Bradford was scheduled to face a committal hearing in March, 2017 relating to the charges, but was released from custody on January 12, 2017.
Days later, he broke into her home with an axe he’d bought at a local Bunnings store, murdering Teresa before killing himself.
In coronial findings, neighbours found a notebook in a drain near the property where Mr Bradford wrote ‘I sat in a cell regretting not what I did but why I stopped” (referencing his previous attack) “And if this gets read by a coroner, the systems (sic) f**ked but it won’t change’.
According to data from realestate.com.au, the property was last sold in November 2021 for an undisclosed amount and is currently off the market.
Redwood Street, Newtown
A man from Toowoomba stabbed his sister and mother to death in their Redwood Street home in Newtown, a suburb of Toowoomba.
Mitchell Perks, who was 16-years-old at the time of the incident, pleaded guilty under diminished responsibility to the deaths of his sister Ebonie Perks, 12, and mother Melanie Perks.
He was convicted as an adult for manslaughter and sentenced to nine years in jail in 2017.
It was said in court that Perks had a medical history of schizophrenia and was having homicidal thoughts towards his sister and mother at the time of the incident after he had stopped taking his medication.
Ms Perks’ life insurance funds her son was entitled to was redirected to Perks’ grandparents by Chief Justice James Allsop.
According to data from realestate.com.au, the property last sold in March 2004 for $195,500 and is currently off the market.
Deanne Court, Caboolture South
Three-year-old daughter Kyhesha-Lee Joughin died at a property in Deanne Court, Caboolture South, north of Brisbane, after her father physically abused her and neglected her injuries.
Matthew Lee Williamson, 32, was sentenced to nine years in jail for manslaughter, with the court hearing he physically and sexually abused Kyhesha-Lee regularly as well as locking her in her bedroom.
The court heard Williamson had dealt a fatal punch into the three-year-old’s stomach which led to a perforated bowel and slow death, failing to take her to be treated for her injuries.
Justice Atkinson said Kyhesha-Lee was also subjected to repeated sexual assaults, which Williamson either inflicted or was callously indifferent to protecting her from.
“She lived in a depraved, disgusting environment,” Justice Atkinson said.
But Williamson was not charged with any sexual offences.
Kyhesha-Lee’s death occurred on March 30, 2013 and Williamson was sentenced to jail on April 6, 2017.
Danielle Joughin, 29, Kyhesha-Lee’s mother, said outside the court that her daughter’s memory would never be forgotten.
“To think he took her from me out of spite and this is the way he was going to treat her afterwards. It’s disgusting,” Ms Joughin said.
According to realestate.com.au, the property data site does not have any information on past sales.
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