Robert Xie: Inside a killer’s grisly trail of carnage
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT: These are the graphic photographs that reveal how in mass murderer Robert Xie turned his brother-in-law’s North Epping home into a slaughterhouse.
THESE are the graphic photographs that reveal how in one bloody night mass murderer Robert Xie turned his brother-in-law’s suburban home into a slaughterhouse.
They reveal the horrific sight that greeted his wife Kathy Lin when she discovered the bodies of her family members, unaware her husband was their killer.
Released yesterday by the NSW Supreme Court, this is only part of what the jury saw before last week convicting Xie, 53, of murder. Other crime scene photographs shown to the jury could never be published.
Xie and his wife Kathy Lin, who did not take his surname when they married, lived in Beck Street, North Epping, just 300m away from the Lin family home in Boundary Road. On the concrete floor in a corner of his garage, forensic scientists found the clue that was crucial in his conviction.
Stain 91, the 2cm by 6cm discolouration hidden beneath a tallboy, can also be seen in the crime scene photographs released yesterday. It contained the DNA of four of his five victims.
The prosecution said that Xie missed it when he cleaned his garage following the murders in the early hours of July 18, 2009, after sedating his wife so she would not wake and find him gone from their bed.
Xie was convicted by a majority jury verdict of the murders of his brother-in-law Min Lin, 45, Lin’s wife Lilly Lin, 43, their sons Henry, 12, and Terry, nine, and Lilly’s sister Irene Yin, 39.
Their bodies — except for Min Lin’s — were discovered by Xie and his wife after she was alerted on the morning of July 18 that her brother had not opened his newsagency.
In the main bedroom to the right of the top of the stairs where Min and Lilly Lin slept, blood splatter covered the walls down to the socket where their Samsung phone charger was plugged in.
Down the corridor on the left was Lilly’s sister Irene Yin’s bedroom. Even the door handle was slippery with blood.
The next bedroom on the left was where Lin and Lilly’s sons, Henry and Terry fought for their lives as their uncle Robert bashed them to death with a hammer-like weapon that was never found. Their blood was all over the walls.
The audio of the triple-0 call made by a terrified Kathy Lin and played in court has also been released.
She is heard begging her husband not to leave her but he drove off, leaving her alone before police and ambulance officers arrived, despite the fact she did not know if there was still an armed killer in the house or in the area.
The prosecution said that he left to get rid of the weapon as he picked up Min and Kathy’s parents in Merrylands and told them the devastating news.
“I am more scared than you,” Ms Lin can be heard telling Xie as she waited for the triple-0 operator.
The triple-0 recording shows her call dropped out after almost two minutes and then she is too upset to tell the operator what has happened.
“I need someone to come quick because I think ... I think someone killed my brother sister, someone killed my brother’s family,” she eventually told the operator.
Operator: “Are they on the ground?”
Ms Lin: “No, no, no, they are in the bedrooms they’re all bedrooms.”
Operator: “Are they in the house? Is your brother in the house?”
Ms Lin: “I’m not sure because I just have quickly take a look ... saw the body ... decide to call you.
“I saw the ... sister-in-law’s body and I saw the sister-in-law’s sister’s body and I saw the two cousins, nephew, um, two my brother’s sons body down up there. I didn’t see my brother.”
Min Lin’s body was covered by a doona in the bed next to his wife but police and paramedics did not find it until that afternoon after Ms Lin called them. The initial fear was he had killed his family and escaped.
Ms Lin told police they should look under the doona because she had a “feeling” her brother was under there. She denied she had been told to say that by her husband.
Submissions on his sentence will be heard in the Supreme Court on February 10.
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