Anitha Mathew left a suicide note and emailed a friend right before her death
A MOTHER who killed herself and her children after lacing cheesecake with a pill and setting a house on fire, left behind some notes with her last words.
ANITHA Mathew sent one last chilling message before she killed herself and murdered her children.
One thing that makes it so cold, is it shows she had put some thought into what she was about to do. She also left a suicide note.
“I will try my luck in my next life,” she wrote in an email to a friend.
Ms Mathew is a murderous mother who laced a cheesecake with sleeping pills and fed it to her two children.
She then ignited a fire at her Clayton South home, south east of Melbourne, that killed her, and her sons, Mathew George, 5, and Philip George, 9.
Her relationship with her husband, George Phillip, was breaking down and he had not spoken to Ms Mathew for months.
Their marriage was arranged and he was angered by her cooking.
Coroner Judge Ian Gray has now handed down his findings into Ms Mathew’s death and said she committed the ultimate act of family violence.
The day of the killing, June 1 2012, started off like any normal day and it looked like Ms Mathew was just running errands.
She went to Bunnings and bought a five-litre jerry can before filling it up with petrol.
She then swung past a cheesecake shop and picked her children up from school.
There was no clue at this stage the petrol would be used to ignite a blaze and that the cake was a sweet delight that would help put her children to sleep forever.
She then put a suicide note she wrote the day before in a gift bag and placed it on the roof of her car.
“I don’t know how to write a will kit and I don’t know this writing is legal, but please take this seriously,” she wrote.
“Myself and 2 kids (philip and mathew) are not planning to live anymore. Most of my friends know the reason. If in case any of my kids survive, please authorities make sure that my ornaments which was given to me by my parents which is in Westpac Melbourne branch locker should be given to whoever survive. Thanks.”
The fire is believed to have been started as revenge to her husband of 13 years.
He was not talking to Ms Mathew because he was teaching her a lesson about her cooking.
At an inquest in May last year, Ms Mathew’s husband said their relationship was never a violent one.
Mr Philip told the inquest his wife went to a women’s refuge and called police months before her death and said Ms Mathew became angry when Mr Philip found no dinner on the table.
The husband then had fears for his wife’s mental wellbeing and said he feared she would jump in front of a train or bus and he would be blamed.
In last year’s inquest, Detective Senior Constable Peter Dechene said Ms Mathew had threatened to kill her husband, and later her family, in a phone call with her cousin who lived in Canada.
Judge Gray said people in Australia needed to understand the meaning and purpose of family violence laws and the escalating threats from Ms Mathew’s about harming herself and her family should have been brought to the attention of Mr Philip or the police.
The Judge concluded Ms Mathew felt isolated and alone and feared social stigma of divorce.