How three siblings were found slain in an overflowing spa bath

On a sleepy Sunday evening, a family home in a quiet Brisbane suburb was the scene of one of the most gruesome crimes Australia has ever seen.

WARNING: DISTRESSING

When Shirley and Vijay Singh kissed their children goodbye, they never imagined it would be the last time they’d ever see them.

It was April 2003, and the parents left their kids Neelma, 24, Kunal, 18, and Sidhi, 12, at their Brisbane home while they flew to Fiji for business.

All three siblings were brutally slain in the family home a week later.

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All four of Shirley and Vijay's children have now died. Picture: Facebook

Their oldest daughter Sonia Pathik, then 26, survived the slaughter, as she was married and living out of home.

In court, Mr Singh revealed that he had “woken up screaming” from a dream about a woman in black on the night his children were murdered.

Little did he know, his nightmare was about to become a reality.

‘I’ve got three bodies in a spa’

When Massimo ‘Max’ Sica called triple-0 on the 22nd of April, 2003, he thought he’d gotten away with murder.

Arriving at the double storey house in Bridgeman Downs in Brisbane’s north in the afternoon, there was a chilling silence that echoed inside the walls of the family home.

It was quiet, except for the faint sound of trickling water coming from the spa bath.

Making his way up the stairs, he told police he was confronted by the horrifying sight of a blood trail leading from his ex-girlfriend Neelma’s bedroom.

Entering the ensuite bathroom of the main bedroom, Sica, then 33, said he saw blankets piled into the spa bath and water on the floor.

“I lifted the blanket and saw a hand,” he told police in a statement.

“Pulling the blankets back, I saw the hand belonged to Sidhi. Later, Nim’s hand touched mine.

“It was cold and wrinkly.”

The spa bath where the bodies were found. Picture: Supplied

He called his parents first, reportedly in tears and distressed over what he had just witnessed.

“Ma, it’s me, Massimo! Neelma died. Neelma died!” he said.

Collapsing to the ground, he dialled triple-0.

“I’ve got three bodies in a spa” he sobbed.

Police arrived at the scene 19 minutes later, unprepared for the carnage that lay inside.

Master manipulator

Max Sica and Neelma Singh began their romance in late 2001, despite her parents’ vehement disapproval.

The following year, the attractive flight attendant had tried to end the relationship, confessing to her mother that Sica was “possessive, jealous and clingy”.

It was also alleged that there had been previous incidents of him being physically violent towards Neelma.

In an act of revenge, Sica had previously distributed naked photographs of Neelma without her consent to her friends and family via email.

One particularly upsetting image showed her handcuffed to a bedpost.

Neelma told her mother that Max was "possessive". Picture: Supplied

While it is understood that these pictures were taken consensually, Neelma had not expected them to be shared around.

This act led to her refusing to speak to Sica.

But in the weeks before the killings, he faked a story about having an inoperable brain tumour and claimed he had just months to live.

Sica also said he struggled with suicidal thoughts in order to gain her sympathy.

‘See you later tonight’

Sica was due to come over to the Singh household on the night of the murders to attend a “prayer session” with Neelma to help his “brain tumour”.

At 8:56pm on April 20, Neelma sent Sica a final SMS stating that she would see him later tonight to chat, and that she may have been coming down with an illness.

The last phone call between them occurred at 11:30pm.

Detectives could not confirm the exact time of the killings, due to the scorching temperature of the spa bath interfering with the natural decomposition of the bodies.

However, they believed the killings took place between 11:30pm on the 20th of April and 7.00am the following morning.

While Sica never confessed what exactly happened, the prosecution alleged that the pair got into an argument which turned violent.

Sidhi, 12, Kunal, 18, and Neelma, 24, were brutally murdered by Max Sica. Picture: Supplied

Their bodies were dumped in an overflowing spa bath upstairs. Picture: Supplied

They alleged Sica flew into a fit of rage before strangling and bashing Neelma to death and disfiguring her face with a large garden fork.

Her official cause of death was manual strangulation.

Sidhi was sleeping in her parents bedroom with the lights on, as she was scared of the dark.

She died from blunt force trauma to the head.

It is believed Kunal was the last to be murdered.

His official cause of death was from drowning, with the prosecution stating that he had been dumped into the spa bath first after being beaten unconscious.

They had all been attacked with the garden fork, which – despite being wiped down – had blood from all three of the siblings on it.

‘The smell is putrid’

This was the statement made from one of the officers that entered the ensuite where the bodies of Nelma, Kunal and Sidhi lay slain in the overflowing spa bath.

The water in the bath was murky; full of bubbles, excrement and scum, making it difficult to see.

“I saw what appeared to be a female body lying across the top of the spa,” an officer stated.

“When I had a closer look, I identified an arm and a leg that didn’t match up with that body, so I realised there was a second body.”

Police thought there were only two bodies in the spa, which was inconsistent with what Sica had told them.

But they then discovered Kunal submerged at the bottom, below his sisters.

The Singh family home in Brisbane. Picture: Supplied

It struck police as odd that Sica knew there were three bodies in the spa, when it was not obvious at first glance.

“The two bodies I could see were pale, clammy, like they had been there for some time,” a paramedic explained.

“By leaning over the foot of the spa, I could see a pair of dark hairy legs submerged at the bottom of the bath, which indicated a third body.”

The Singh house remained a crime scene for a month, the longest period in Queensland history.

Frustratingly, bleach had destroyed the forensic evidence.

A confident killer

For a long time, Max Sica thought he was untouchable.

He followed the case closely over the years while maintaining his innocence.

During the five and a half year investigation, police excluded dozens of suspects.

By the end, more than 1500 “lines of inquiry” had been logged and investigated by nearly 100 police officers.

More than 300 DNA profiles found in the home were ruled out, with the results from the last two arriving the week before Sica’s arrest on December 30, 2008.

The case remained circumstantial, as nobody could place him at the scene of the crime.

A breakthrough came after the court heard that Sica had once confessed to the murders of the Singh siblings in March 2008.

Max Sica denied having any part in the murders. Picture: Supplied

Andrea Bowman was a friend Sica had made as a teenager, who reached out to him again after hearing about the murders on the news.

She claims after rekindling their friendship, she went over to his home and he asked her a bone-chilling question before confessing to the killings.

“Do you know how hard it is to kill someone when somebody says, ‘please don’t, don’t please?’”

Andrea told police of the confession and one month later, she wore a wire in an attempt to get Sica to confess to the crimes again, but he denied ever having confessed in the first place.

Despite this, her statement was an important piece of the puzzle in the case.

‘Manipulative and deceitful’

The trial began on the 31st of January, 2012, with Sica pleading not guilty.

Jurors deliberated for more than 21 hours across three and a half days, before coming back with their verdict.

They found Sica guilty on all three charges or murder on the 3rd of July, 2012.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 35 years.

“These are brutal, horrific crimes in the worst categories of murder,” Justice John Byrne stated in his sentencing remarks.

He was sentanced to life in prison. Picture: Supplied

Shirley Singh says she "never liked" Max Sica. Picture: Facebook

“You are manipulative and deceitful. You have no remorse whatsoever. Your only anxiety is for self-preservation.”

Sica maintained his innocence throughout the trial.

“I didn’t kill no one,” he said in court.

“The Queensland justice system is corrupt.”

The Singh family now

Shirley and Vijay Singh still live at the home where three of their children were murdered 19 years ago.

The spa bath was transformed into a shrine to their beloved kids, and photographs of Neelma, Kunal and Sidhi are displayed throughout.

The loving mother still kisses pictures of her children before she goes to bed each night, and tucks them into their beds.

Due to the brutal nature of the crime, the victim’s faces were reportedly so disfigured that it was difficult for Shirley to recognise them.

“I pray to God that no other mother will see what I saw,” Shirley said in her victim impact statement.

Shirley with her three daughters and one son. Picture: Facebook

“How can anyone be so cold blooded to do what they did to my children?”

She spoke of her regret at being overseas at the time of the murder, and had attempted suicide due to being consumed with grief after the trauma.

“It gives us a little bit of a peace of mind, but we will never be able to see our children again” Vijay Singh told reporters after the sentencing.

Tragedy struck the family again in 2020, when their only surviving child Sonia collapsed and died of brain aneurysm at age 43.

She was a loving mother, wife and sister, who had been instrumental in bringing her sibling’s killer to justice.

The Singh household has become a shrine to the three slain children. Picture: Supplied

How you can help

Rize Up is a charity that works in partnership with specialist domestic violence service across Australia.

Donations help women facing domestic violence flee their situation safely and get back on their feet to be able to start a new life.

Dr Dianne McInnes covered this crime and the evidence presented in court. Her book The Singh Murders, released in September 2022, helped provide key information and facts for this article.

Originally published as How three siblings were found slain in an overflowing spa bath