Mum’s anguish: ‘My heart is broken into a million pieces’
The mother of murder victim Ellie Price has told of her devastation when police knocked on her door to deliver the tragic news. Family members have started raising funds to have her body repatriated to her home state of Tasmania.
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The devastated mother of murder victim Ellie Price has revealed how her “heart is broken into a million pieces”.
Tracey Gangell has told of the moment police knocked on her door with the news her 26-year-old daughter had been killed.
“You wake up and it’s not a dream,” Ms Gangell said.
“The pain is just … you don’t think it happens to you.”
Ms Gangell said Ms Price, whose body was found in her South Melbourne home on May 4, as a dedicated mum who “lived” for her four-year-old son Mostafa.
She said she wished she could have been there to protect her daughter.
Prior to her death, Ms Price allegedly told her mother that her boyfriend Ricardo Barbaro had bashed her, leaving her in hospital.
“You don’t think it happens to you. You think it happens to everyone else but not you,” Ms Gangell told Seven News.
“I feel so bad because a mother is supposed to protect their kids and I didn’t protect her, I couldn’t be there to help her.”
Ms Price’s grandmother Sherry Bradford said she sees Ellie every time she looks at Mostafa.
She said: “Now we look in Mossy’s eyes and we see Ellie and Mossy.”
A nationwide manhunt for Mr Barbaro – whose extended family include mafia, gangsters, and an outlaw bikie member – was launched last week and he remained on the run last night.
The 33-year-old had been released from prison weeks before becoming a fugitive.
Commenting on Mr Barbaro, Ms Bradford said: “She thought he loved her but there’s no love there.”
A Barbaro family member has told the Herald Sun yesterdaythat his nephew should stop running.
“Hand yourself in,’’ his uncle, Frank Barbaro, said.
“Why would you hide?’’
Mr Barbaro said his nephew’s actions were also hurting the family name, declaring that none of his relatives would give him refuge.
“No, he would have to do it (run) alone,’’ he said.
”No one would shelter him after something like that.’’
He said his brother, Joe Barbaro, was “worried sick’’.
It comes as Ms Price’s cousin, Rebecca Lehner, attempts to raise $3000 through a GoFundMe page to repatriate her body to Tasmania where she was raised.
“Ellie was living in Melbourne pursuing her dreams but her heart was in Tasmania with her friends and family,’’ Ms Lehner wrote.
“This is a terrible and tragic event that should never have happened and now here I am trying to raise funds to ensure my cousin makes her way back home and is laid to rest surrounded by the people who love her.’’