Ellie Price’s heartbroken family reveal anguish over her brutal murder by Ricardo Barbaro
The young child of Melbourne mum Ellie Price, who was brutally murdered by her violent boyfriend Ricardo Barbaro, misses her so much he wants to dig up her body to be with her again, a court has heard.
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The young son of a Melbourne mum brutally murdered by her violent boyfriend misses her so much he wants to dig up her body to be with her again, a court has heard.
The heartbroken family of Ellie Price, 26, laid bare their anguish in the Supreme Court on Monday where convicted murderer Ricardo Barbaro sat in the dock, devoid of emotion.
The court heard Barbaro – a member of a notorious Mafia-linked family involved in numerous underworld killings – maintains his innocence, claiming he did not murder Ms Price.
A jury found him guilty of stabbing Ms Price six times, including slashing open her neck, in a frenzied attack which left almost every surface of her South Melbourne bedroom covered in blood in April 2020.
Her body wasn’t found for days, with Barbaro fleeing the state with assistance from his father Giuseppe ‘Joe’ Barbaro to dump Ms Price’s Mercedes at a Diggers Rest property.
The court heard Ms Price’s son Mossie, aged four at the time of her murder, still cries himself to sleep and will lie on his mother’s grave just to be close to her.
“He’s asked if we could dig her up and bring her back because he misses her so much,” his aunt Danielle Price told the court.
Another time Mossie, seated on his grandmother’s couch, said: “Mum is sitting on the couch, can you see her?”
Ms Price’s mother Tracey Gangell wept as she recalled her daughter’s “cheeky grin” and bubbly demeanour.
She said she is tortured by thoughts of her daughter’s final moments.
“It’s like an endless video which won’t turn off,” Ms Gangell said.
“I feel I failed you as a mother. A mother is supposed to protect her children. If I could take your place I would in a heartbeat.”
During his trial, Barbaro’s defence team said there may have been others who wished to harm Ms Price, with her close associate, brothel owner Mark Gray, extensively questioned over an act of blackmail by Ms Price, who worked as an exotic dancer.
Mr Gray gave evidence that weeks prior to Ms Price’s murder, she told him her boyfriend had choked her – which evidence suggests is a strong indicator for future homicide in domestic violence relationships.
Barbaro also served time in prison on a threat to kill charge after driving a car at Ms Price following a drunken argument a month prior to her murder.
The court heard he had survived multiple attempts on his life, including shortly before taking his girlfriend’s, and that had an extensive “trauma history” linked to the deaths of his two brothers – one in a gangland hit in Sydney in 2016.
Another relative, Pasquale Barbaro, was gunned down alongside Jason Moran while watching Moran’s children play footy at an oval in Essendon in 2003 during the gangland wars.
Barbaro maintains he did not murder Ms Price and will be sentenced at a later date.
Originally published as Ellie Price’s heartbroken family reveal anguish over her brutal murder by Ricardo Barbaro
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