Dr Karen Mahlo drafted new will just weeks before her mysterious death
A doctor found dead with a knife in her chest had drafted a new will removing her ex-partner from her multimillion-dollar estate just weeks before her mysterious death.
A doctor found dead in her home with a kitchen knife embedded in her chest had just weeks before drafted a new will removing her ex-partner from her multimillion-dollar estate.
When police arrived at Dr Karen Mahlo’s Moffat Beach mansion, called there by the man who found her body – her former lover and financial planner John Hehir – they found the new will on her computer.
Its discovery sparked a bitter, years-long dispute over her estate, with the doctor’s family battling Mr Hehir.
The estate battle revelations come amid a six-month investigation in Dr Mahlo’s mysterious death by The Sunday Mail, which has raised several questions about the original police investigation.
Her family and experts have never accepted a coronial finding of suicide and are calling for a new inquest.
In a twist that rocked the family, Dr Mahlo’s sister-in-law, Ceinwen Mahlo described as “bizarre” a phone call she said she received from Mr Hehir the day of Dr Mahlo’s death, in which he immediately mentioned the existence of two wills.
Ceinwen, married to Dr Mahlo’s brother Brett, said she had never spoken to Mr Hehir.
She said she had lost her own brother about nine months earlier in a motorcycle accident.
“He was emotional and I was emotional,” Ceinwen said.
“The first thing he said to me was I’m sorry this has happened so soon after losing your brother.
“He said: ‘Eddie didn’t mean to die but Karen did’. I was very shocked to hear him say that, it was very odd.
“I said to him ‘John I’m so sorry this has happened. I said ‘where are the kids, how are the kids, are you there supporting each other?’.”
Ceinwen said Mr Hehir’s voice changed during the conversation.
“He said I’m pretty sure Karen had two wills,” Ceinwen said.
“It shocked me. The conversation probably only went for a matter of minutes and in that time he had brought up the wills, he had basically stated that Karen meant to die and my brother’s death was an accident.”
Tensions had boiled over between Dr Mahlo and Mr Hehir just 24 hours before the doctor was found dead in her Moffat Beach home on May 28, 2008.
Witnesses saw the estranged pair arguing outside the property after Dr Mahlo signed over the registration of a jointly owned motorcycle to Mr Hehir.
That evening, Mahlo told friends and family she was happy to move on.
By 5am the next day, Mr Hehir had driven 30 minutes from his newly rented home at Cotton Tree to find Mahlo dead in her bed. The coroner found mobile phone records backed up Mr Hehir’s account of his movements that night.
A knife was protruding from her chest, causing a wound a pathologist remarked required “severe force” to penetrate the lower sternum.
WATCH EPISODE 1 – THE MOFFAT BEACH MYSTERY
Mr Hehir met Mahlo in February 2006. By November that year, he had left his wife and moved into the doctor’s home.
He helped her form a new will around the time he moved in, naming him executor and a beneficiary.
Within 18 months, by February 2008, Mr Hehir was the main beneficiary of her multimillion-dollar estate.
The romance crumbled after an embarrassing April Fools’ Day prank played on Mahlo’s 18-year-old daughter, Anastasia, at Mr Hehir’s business.
The inquest into her death heard about the prank in which Mr Hehir had a man in his office pretend to be a police officer, questioning Anastasia about “drugs” he had found.
Mr Hehir moved out but kept in touch with Mahlo, who asked him for documentation to change her will after the break-up.
When police arrived at the death scene, they found two printed, unsigned suicide notes in the printer.
Investigators found a draft version of an unsigned new will – in which Mr Hehir was not a beneficiary – on her computer.
Despite Mahlo’s father claiming he had seen a printed and signed version of the new will, a physical copy was never found.
Officers treated the death as a suicide and left the crime scene within hours.
Mr Hehir, who still had a key card to the home, later confirmed he entered the home to collect his belongings that same day.
The dispute over which will was valid ended in a Supreme Court battle.
At the hearing, Mr Hehir denied raising the will over the phone to family but confirmed he was aware Mahlo was potentially changing elements of it.
The court dismissed the claim from Mahlo’s brother, finding that while she intended to create a new will, the electronic document was not the intended final version.
The family appealed and later settled with Mr Hehir for an undisclosed amount.
During the separate coronial investigation, police raided Mr Hehir’s business and seized devices.
It emerged that a device labelled “John’s USB” – which had been plugged into Mahlo’s computer before she died – disappeared from her home on the day of her death and was used months later on Mr Hehir’s computer.
He explained he must have taken it when collecting his belongings.
Coroner Christine Clements found a number of Mr Hehir’s statements in court to be “totally unconvincing and appeared to be designed simply to support his financial claim against her estate”.
In her final report into the death of Dr Mahlo in 2014 the Coroner ruled the evidence supported a finding of suicide.
Forensic psychiatrist Russ Scott and forensic pathologist Allan Cala have now called for the inquest to be reopened, arguing there are questions over the suicide ruling.
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Originally published as Dr Karen Mahlo drafted new will just weeks before her mysterious death
