By Kate Aubusson and Perry Duffin
A Sydney woman has been accused of the premeditated killing and dismemberment of her husband in what police have described as a brutal, macabre and bizarre crime more than a year ago.
Homicide squad detectives have charged Nirmeen Noufl, 53, of acting alone in the murder of Mamdouh “Emad” Noufl, cutting up his body with knives and a power saw in their family home in Greenacre in Sydney’s west, and disposing of his body parts in residential and commercial bins across the neighbourhood.
“The murder is brutal, but it’s also macabre and bizarre. The way, the manner, the nature and the disposal of the body,” Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty, commander of the homicide squad, said on Saturday.
What began as a missing persons case in July last year became a murder investigation in January when the homicide squad joined the investigation conducted by officers attached to Bankstown Police Area Command.
Concerned family friends raised the alarm after Noufl, 62, had not been seen since May 2023. His family members, particularly his wife, had conflicting accounts “that didn’t add up” to explain his absence, including overseas and interstate trips, but his family in Egypt could not locate him either, Doherty said.
Police deemed Noufl’s disappearance suspicious, and detectives attached to State Crime Command’s homicide squad established Strike Force Tannerie to investigate the incident.
An appeal for Mamdouh “Emad” Noufl’s disappearance was issued last year. Police search the Greenacre home.Credit: NSW Police
“We are alleging from the facts that [she] had taken over his phone and social media accounts purporting that he could still be alive, and that delayed some of the investigations and also was probably a ruse to disguise the fact that he was actually dead,” Doherty said.
Police also alleged she was accessing his bank accounts until July when he was reported missing.
“We will allege that she is a person who manipulates people and manipulates the truth,” he said.
Doherty said evidence deduced in the course of the investigation revealed the man was intentionally killed, but he would not disclose what this evidence was.
The couple have eight adult children, who will be in shock and grieving the death of their father, he said.
“We will deduce in court that she was solely responsible for the murder,” Doherty said. “We’re saying that the murder happened on the night of the 3rd of May into the early hours of the 4th of May.
“We will allege, also that [she] butchered and dismembered his body, placed his body parts in plastic bags and then disposed of his remains in various rubbish bins in the residential areas and industrial areas in south-west Sydney,” he said.
No remains have been found, and Doherty did not expect any to be found in the future due to the nature of their alleged disposal.
A new floor was put down at the Juno Parade home, police said.Credit: NSW Police
“There was an extensive clean of the house and a reflooring of the house as well,” he said.
Police decided to act on strong circumstantial and other evidence to arrest her on Thursday, Doherty said. Strike force detectives arrested her at a hospital in Bankstown after she had admitted herself and executed a crime scene warrant at a home on Juno Parade.
She was taken to Bankstown police station on Friday, where she was charged with murder (domestic violence).
Nirmeen Noufl has maintained her right to silence, Doherty said.
Police will allege that the motive for the killing was partly financial.
Doherty said the woman had received housing and government assistance for the past 20 years. She has an NDIS and a child-minding business and had “a lot of unexplained wealth”.
She had previously travelled to Egypt and sold properties and was in the process of purchasing shares in the United Arab Emirates, Doherty said.
Nirmeen Noufl was refused bail to appear before Bankstown Local Court on Friday and will appear in Burwood Local Court in December.
The investigation is ongoing.
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