Singh murders: Inside the sting that helped bring down triple murderer Max Sica
An Italian restaurant, a night out at the movies, talking online – this is the inside story on what it was like dating a child murderer and the moment it had to end.
Police & Courts
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A covert policewoman was sent on dates with triple murderer Max Sica in a secret operation to get a confession on the Singh killings but she ended the relationship when he tried to become romantic, one of the state’s most senior detectives has revealed.
Sica – who was the prime suspect for killing Neelma Singh, 24, her brother Kunal, 18, and sister Sidhi, 12, in 2003 – met the undercover officer on dating site RSVP before dining with her at an Italian restaurant in Windsor and taking her to the police-themed movie SWAT, starring Colin Farrell.
One of the main investigators in the murders, Detective Superintendent Andrew Massingham, told The Courier-Mail the fake profile of a vulnerable woman was put online by police, in the months after the deaths, before Sica was contacted via a “virtual kiss”.
“He was actually chatting with me for some time,” Supt Massingham said, in his first interview in 20 years on Sica murdering the Singhs.
“So all of a sudden, back then, I was in my 30s, male, and never really interacted online. He’d offer to assist me with my computer skills and very quickly tried to wheel me in as an unsuspecting vulnerable female.
“Ultimately, there was going to become a time where he wanted to meet this lady. And then we went to post the covert operative.”
Supt Massingham, who in 2003 was a sergeant in the homicide squad, said while the covert policewoman didn’t get a confession or lead to Sica’s arrest, investigators were able to learn his personality traits and patterns of behaviour.
The operative was given a profile as a science student who had been cheated on previously and whose parents lived overseas, as Sica was known to be manipulative and controlling and used to target people who appeared vulnerable online.
An Italian restaurant, under surveillance, was chosen by police for a date so Sica would feel comfortable and confident, as his family also owned an Italian restaurant.
“So we knew that he would like that because he’d be like ‘you’ve never had bruschetta, my family’s bruschetta’, it was the hook,” Supt Massingham said.
“That lasted for a few months, where we basically concluded that he’s a fairly strange sort of guy, and he was exhibiting characteristics, like we thought he would.
“But obviously, that type of a relationship could only last so long, in that environment, where he’d want more from the relationship.
“And that wouldn’t be appropriate. So once that came to fruition a few months down the track, in terms of as far as we could take it, we then pulled out of that strategy.”
Detectives had also separately unsuccessfully tried the “Mr Big” sting to get Sica to confess to an undercover operative but he was too suspicious and it didn’t work.
Ultimately, investigators spent five years probing every aspect of the Singh murders until they were able to arrest Sica in 2008. A jury convicted him and he was sentenced to life in jail with a non-parole period of 35 years, the largest in Queensland history.
Supt Massingham said Sica, who had dated Neelma and killed her in a fit of rage before killing her brother and sister who were asleep, was cunning and thought he had outsmarted police after having hours to clean the house with bleach.
“He was confident he had committed the perfect crime,” Supt Massingham said. “But in fact he hadn’t, the crime scene was quite disorganised.”
The siblings were murdered late on Easter Sunday or early the next morning and dumped in the spa of their home, while their parents Vijay and Shirley were in Fiji.
After cleaning the home, Sica left a size 11 footprint at the bottom of the carpeted stairs, while wearing a sock.
Sica returned to the home on Tuesday afternoon and called police claiming he had discovered their bodies after turning up to the house to take them to a movie.
In the following days, Sica declared himself to media as the “prime suspect” in their killings.
Supt Massingham said the footprint, along with other evidence such as Sica’s confessions to friend Andrea Bowman, were crucial in the investigation.
Sica had also been in contact with Neelma on the night of the murders, and was invited into her home for a prayer session after he had faked having brain cancer to reconcile with her after she tried to end their relationship.
In the lead-up to killing Neelma, Sica remotely accessed her computer and sent nude photos of her to her friends and family, without her realising it was him. Sica also deleted the hard drive of a computer he had been using.
“He was always trying to show us that he was more knowledgeable around police procedure, or questioning methods, or whatever it might be,” Supt Massingham said.
“It was really a game to him in some respects, where he would relish the challenge of speaking in an interview where he tried to be overbearing, manipulative, and smart.”
Supt Massingham said the moment lead investigator Detective Sergeant Joe Zitney arrested Sica, he sat between the two officers shaking in the car.
“When we asked him why he was shaking, he told us we have the airconditioning up too cold,” Supt Massingham said. “He knew this was it. This was five years, he had convinced himself he had got away with this. He knew it was over.”
In building their case, investigators rebuilt the Singhs’ internal staircase using the same builder, took tests of Sica walking on it, with an expert opinion finding his footprint couldn’t be excluded.
“We still keep the exhibit today in case of challenges in the future,” Supt Massingham said.
Detectives also travelled to Fiji and took DNA and footprints of family, friends and associates, after the Singhs’ dirty laundry was aired through court proceedings including Vijay’s affairs and business dealings.
“You’ll recall that during the committal and even at trial, (Sica’s) instructions to his legal team was somehow that the parents were suspected or should be considered suspects of their own children’s deaths,” Supt Massingham said.
He said Sica, deemed by a prison psychologist as having psychopathic traits in the ’90s, should never be released from jail and believed the 53-year-old would kill again.
“I don’t think Max Sica could ever be rehabilitated,” he said. “Who violently attacks two helpless children asleep in their beds, to ensure that their voices are forever silenced about who was in the house that night? He’s in the most evil of the evil category for me.”
After he and other investigators worked relentlessly for five years, Supt Massingham said the case was a crucial lesson for police to operate forensically and to persevere in long term investigations.
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