Pascoe Vale murder suicide: Mum suffered psychotic episode before tragedy

A psychotic mother bizarrely claimed she was the Mother Mary before killing her toddler daughter, then taking her own life.

Police at the scene after Aisha Beck and her three-year-old daughter, Aziza, were found dead in Pascoe Vale in 2017.

A psychotic mum who shot her three-year-old daughter dead before taking her own life told neighbours she’d given birth to Jesus.

Aisha Beck believed she had to take little Aziza’s life if she followed through with dark thoughts about taking her own.

The mum, originally from Myanmar, had been changing her medication levels in the lead up to the January 29, 2017 tragedy.

She was also gripped with money worries having recently been ordered to repay a $23,000 Centrelink debt.

The Coroners Court on Wednesday heard police were in late 2015 called to Mrs Beck’s Pascoe Vale street after she approached neighbours asking to speak with then Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Police at the scene of the tragedy in January 2017.

Counsel assisting Nicholas Ngai told the court Mrs Beck also asked police to call the Norwegian Embassy and made delusional religious claims.

“Mrs Beck stated that she was the Mother Mary and she had just given birth to Jesus,’’ he said.

Mrs Beck, who as a child witnessed the aftermath of her own mother’s suicide, battled mental health issues for years.

She had experienced periods of distress where she worried about neighbours, prayed a lot and felt God was “ready to take her”.

She the year before the murder-suicide saw a psychiatrist who gave her five repeat scripts of antipsychotic medication and believed her GP would follow up.

On December 19, 2016 she went to a different GP who gave her another medication script — attending a pharmacy the following month.

She’d been changing her medication doses up and down in the months before the deaths — husband Mohamed revealing his wife was “having those thoughts again”.

He’d taken seven months off work in a bid to work through the issues.

The home where tragedy unfolded. Picture: Mark Wilson

Mrs Beck had questioned why the couple had Aziza and worried who would care for the little girl if something happened to herself.

There had been a “resurgence” in Mrs Beck’s ideations before Mr Beck came home to work to find his daughter — who’d usually come running to greet him — dead on a mattress in the loungeroom alongside his lifeless wife.

Aziza had been shot in the head, Mrs Beck secretly finding the key to her husband’s gun safe.

Deputy State Coroner Caitlin English found Mrs Beck’s mental health issues, isolation in the community and financial concerns all contributed to her decision to take her life.

“This decision also meant for Aisha that she would have to take the life of her daughter as she felt that Aziza would not be able to be cared for if she wasn’t there,’” Ms English said.

Ms English recommended more “assertive” follow up from GPs with patients who have serious mental health issues and wants new Medicare item numbers introduced for longer sessions doctors have with such clients.