Brother reveals ‘strange’ and ‘surprising’ behaviour of alleged mum killer
The brother of a man accused of killing his mother has told a court of his sibling’s “strange” and “surprising” behaviour after she died.
The brother of a man accused of killing his mother has told a court about the “strange” and “surprising” things his brother did after their mother’s death.
Julian Rebelo gave evidence in his brother Andre Zachary Rebelo’s murder trial.
Andre is accused of killing their mother about a week after he set up three life insurance policies against her in which he stood to gain $1.15m.
Andre pleaded not guilty to killing his mother but admitted to submitting forged documents to one of the life insurance companies.
The oldest brother Julian was made the executor of his mother Colleen Rebelo’s estate after she was found dead at her Bicton home in Perth’s southwest on May 25, 2020.
Julian told the WA Supreme Court he stayed in Perth for about two months after his mother’s death to sort out her affairs.
Julian said he looked through his mother’s records to establish her financial position and kept them together with her cards and identification.
He realised his mother’s driver’s licence had gone missing dealing with one her superannuation providers which needed to see copies of her identification.
He confirmed to the court Andre never told him he took the driver’s licence or that he had taken life insurance out against their mother.
Julian told the court Andre mentioned their mother might have had a life insurance policy with ANZ OnePath, with the court shown an email thread between the brothers.
Julian said he did not know his brother was looking into his mother’s affairs and was surprised because there was no need for him to do that.
Julian said he tried to call the insurer to find more information about the policy, but because he had no details the call was brief and did not go anywhere.
“I asked Andre again if he had a policy number and he said he did not and would need to check about it, but there was no further follow up from there,” he said.
“There was nothing I could do after that one phone call.”
Julian told the court he had two phone calls with the coroner’s office about his mother’s death, but his youngest brother Fabian told him the coroner had called Andre when they had been together getting a haircut.
Julian sent a text to Andre asking why he had contacted the coroner’s office, his brother responded, “Checking to see what they can do to help with the insurance issue.”
Julian thought Andre was talking about the One Path insurance policy but thought it was strange because they had no information about a policy with the company.
He also told the court two notifications from Australia Post were sent to his mother’s house about redirecting the mail, which he did not request.
“My first thought was something fraudulent had happened and I asked the siblings in a group message if anyone had made this request,” he said.
Julian asked his siblings in a group message if anyone had requested the mail to be redirected with Andre replying, “Yeah did yesterday thought it made sense in case there’s mail in few months and we need to sell the house.”
“Do you want it cancelled?” he wrote.
“Did it when I renewed mine from my old rental, maybe a bit spontaneous should have asked.”
Julian said he believed the mail redirection was cancelled because they continued receiving mail at the Bicton property.
His sister told him about another notice that was sent to the house six weeks later when he had arrived back in Sydney.
Monique messaged Julian to ask if the notification was for him, he responded, “No ask Andre again.”
“Fk,” she replied.
The court was also told Monique rang Julian when she received a phone from their mum’s psychologist, she was concerned Andre had submitted falsified information to an insurance company from her.
Julian told the court he phoned Andre to ask about the situation and his response was that it was a misunderstanding the psychologist had gotten patients confused.
Former Homicide Squad detective sergeant Jason Hutchinson who was part of the investigation also gave evidence to the court.
The court was told the Homicide Squad received a briefing about the matter on August 31, 2020 then conducted a search of Ms Rebelo’s Bicton and Andre’s Beaconsfield address 16 days later.
Police brought Andre in for questioning in relation to fraud and forgery offences and he was later arrested and charged by police.
Detective Sergeant Hutchinson said a number of items were seized from the properties including mobile phones, computers and laptops.
The senior police sergeant said Andre became a suspect for his mother’s murder on October 1, 2020.
Detective Sergeant Hutchinson conducted a search of computers belonging to Andre and his then partner, model Grace Piscopo.
He said he checked the internet history on an iMac that was used by Andre and noticed activity from December 2019 to July 2020 was missing, and there was no Chrome history on the device prior to June 2020.
He also also told the jury he found Google searches relevant to the case including, ‘coroner’s aneurysm causes’, ‘word doc assist’ and ‘inquest.’
He said an examination of a laptop mostly used by Ms Piscopo revealed there were photos of Andre, Grace and their son that were taken at 8.07am on the day Ms Rebelo died.
At 10.24am and 2pm that day, there were only photos of Ms Piscopo found on the device.
“The investigation came in as a complaint about fraud,” he said.
“It was on Colleen’s cause of death was and an insurance policy taken out just prior to her passing, we were investigating if there was any correlation between that and her death.”
Mr Rebelo has pleaded guilty to submitting forged copies to one of the insurance companies include a forged copy of a medical certificate from his mother’s psychologist, her last will and testament along with a fake copy of a coroner’s report about her death.
He was charged with fraud in October 2020.
He had declared bankruptcy on March 31, 2022, then was charged with his mother’s murder eight months later.
During the trial the court was told Mr Rebelo portrayed a glamorous lifestyle on social media with his defacto, model Grace Piscopo which was funded by credit cards and personal loans.
The court was told that Ms Piscopo was a successful model and social media influencer, but Mr Rebelo had lived beyond his means and was unable to repay his financial obligations.
WA Police Financial Crime Squad investigator Darren Stammers investigated the couple’s financial records for a three-year period until June 2020.
The court was told the couple had a combined debt of $121,000 and little money in their savings accounts about a month after Ms Rebelo died.
Mr Rebelo was being pursued by debt collection agencies after he failed to make repayments on his credit card and personal loan.
The prosecution has argued Mr Rebelo must have thought his world was closing in around him, which led him to take out three life insurance policies against his mother.
State prosecutor Brett Tooker told the court when premiums had to be paid and money started coming out of Mr Rebelo’s account he had to act.
“Which is why five days later he killed his mother, then three days later started pursing policies.”
Ms Piscopo is not accused of any wrongdoing.
While Ms Rebelo’s death was sudden and unexpected it was not treated as suspicious by first responders who attended her home.
Her cause of death has never been determined despite auxiliary testing performed at her autopsy on her organs.
The defence has argued traces of focal subendocardial interstitial fibrosis found on Ms Rebelo’s heart could have caused her to die from cardiac arrhythmia.
The trial continues.
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