By Erin Pearson
As Kaliopi Roumeliotis drove home to Northcote after a shift working as a scientist at Austin Hospital, her Apple Watch recorded her pulse at about 60 beats a minute.
Arriving home and driving into her garage about 7.15pm, the device recorded that the 51-year-old took two steps – and then her heart rate peaked at 162 beats a minute. Soon after, her heart stopped.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard that her husband, Joe Lo Bianco, 53, was lying in wait in the garage on November 30, 2022. The anti-vaxxer then bludgeoned his scientist wife to death with a 7.5-kilogram metal car ramp.
“The attack caused her to drop her bag and belongings onto the garage floor. The assault then generated a large amount of blood splatter to the car and wall,” Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, said.
“After the attack, he placed the metal car ramp under her head, staging it as an accident, and subsequently reported it to triple zero.”
The court heard Roumeliotis, also known as Kali, had spent her whole life in Northcote. Her apartment was built on the same subdivided block as her brother’s family home and their elderly parents’ place, all joined by unlocked gates.
Police have arrested a man after a 51-year-old woman was found dead in a Northcote garage.Credit: Nine News
Rogers said after the fatal attack, Lo Bianco removed his clothes and concealed them in the house and garage before getting changed and leaving through a back gate.
The prosecutor said Lo Bianco then visited his father-in-law to discuss Roumeliotis’ upcoming birthday, which he said would likely be a barbecue at the in-laws’ place.
Later, his primary-school-aged daughter arrived home and asked Lo Bianco where her mother was. She went looking in the garage and found the body.
In a victim impact statement, read out by the girl’s uncle, Arthur Roumeliotis, the now 12-year-old said the grief of losing her mother was like a shadow always lurking behind.
“My mum’s love was like being in a hug forever. And you made her let go,” she wrote.
“I won’t ever get to be in her aura, sing or dance with her again, joke with her again. What you did has left me with scars that will never heal.”
The court heard the couple met through friends in 1995 and commenced a relationship soon after.
Rogers said that during the pandemic, Lo Bianco declined to be vaccinated and as a result was unable to continue working as a contractor for Australia Post.
While Roumeliotis continued to work as a successful scientist, the court heard Lo Bianco’s job loss and their misalignment in beliefs about coronavirus vaccinations became a source of tension in the family home and placed them under financial strain.
Arthur Roumeliotis spoke of the grief of having to break the news to his elderly parents and of living with the memory of seeing his sister on the floor of the garage as his wife tried to resuscitate her.
“It pains me to see the distress, anguish, mental and physical toll this has taken on my loving parents,” he said.
“They were full of life and happiness, having made a better life as migrants from Greece in the ’70s, raising their kids [in a] most loving and caring way. They welcomed our friends and partners as their own. Seeing them so sad breaks me.
“It’s not meant to be this way. She still had so much life to live.”
As his sister-in-law attempted to perform CPR on his wife, Lo Bianco paced around the garage acting hysterically but not rendering assistance, maintaining she had tripped and fallen, the court heard.
“This doesn’t happen in the movies, they bring them back. You need to save her, save her like you do in the movies,” he told emergency services as they arrived shortly after 8pm.
However, a shoe impression from a Nike sneaker was later found in blood at the scene, and bloodied clothing was found hidden in the garage and laundry.
Kaliopi Roumeliotis’ body was found by her daughter after she arrived home from school.
Rogers said Lo Bianco eventually confessed to police before pleading guilty in court.
Defence barrister Moya O’Brien said her client appreciated the betrayal of his entire family in his unforgivable act of family violence on his life partner of 27 years.
She also acknowledged that leaving his daughter to be the first person to discover the body of her mother was “deplorable”.
Lo Bianco will be sentenced at a later date.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).