A 35-year-old man has been charged with murder following the death of 30-year-old mother of four Erica Hay in Perth’s south on Thursday.
Emergency services were called to Currie Street in Warnbro about 1am in response reports of a house engulfed in flames.
In a statement, WA Police said, “it will be alleged sometime between 7.30am and 1am, the accused physically assaulted the victim at their shared home on Currie Street”.
“It will be further alleged the accused set the property alight while the victim was still inside. The 30-year-old woman was later located deceased.”
The woman killed in a house fire in Perth’s south has been identified as 30-year-old Erica Hay.
After the fire was allegedly lit, the accused is said to have fled the property with the victim’s three-year-old child, who was subsequently taken to Rockingham Hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation. The child is understood to be in a stable condition.
Authorities discovered Hay’s body in the rear bedroom of the house.
She has been remembered by friends as a “beautiful and caring” woman who would do anything for her four daughters.
Hay’s lifelong friend Amanda Broad remembered the woman she had known since primary school in Kalgoorlie.
“I’ll never get over her smile and her laugh; she was the goofiest person you’d ever meet,” Broad told Nine News.
Hay’s friends say they feared something was wrong in the week before her death.
Broad said Hay had reached out to her, texting her for help, but the expectant mother forgot to text back.
A 35-year-old South Kalgoorlie man has been charged with one count of murder and one count of criminal damage by fire.
He is due to appear in the Perth Magistrates Court on Sunday.
With Rebecca Peppiatt and Nine News Perth
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