‘The best dad in the world’: Wife of Bali ambush victim says birthday turned to tragedy

The Australian man shot dead in a Bali villa earlier this month was a father of six who was holidaying on the island with his wife for a belated honeymoon and to mark her 30th birthday, lawyers in Indonesia said.

But instead of celebrating with her husband on June 16, Jazmyn Gourdeas, a Melbourne mother, visited her slain partner in the morgue.

The lawyers for Jazmyn Gourdeas, the wife of slain Melbourne man Zivan Radmanovic, hold up her handwritten note at a press conference in Bali on Tuesday. Credit: Amilia Rosa

Gourdeas was granted permission to sit quietly with the body of 32-year-old Zivan Radmanovic two days after he was killed by masked intruders at a luxury villa in Munggu, in Bali’s Badung district, in what police suspect was a targeted attack.

The trip was the couple’s first to Indonesia, and they had been in Bali for only two days when Radmanovic was shot, Gourdeas’ lawyers said.

The shooting injured another Melbourne man and rocked the popular holiday island. More than a week later, Gourdeas remains in Bali under police protection. Investigators are attempting to build evidence against three detained Australians.

Police arrested Sydney plumber Darcy Francesco Jenson in Jakarta on Gourdeas’ birthday. The following day, convicted drug dealer Mevlut Coskun, 23, and Paea I Middlemore Tupou, were detained in Singapore and Cambodia, respectively. All three had now been brought back to Bali and charged with premeditated murder, police said, as well as the “embezzlement” or theft of several rental vehicles.

Gourdeas has told police she was woken by gunfire and her husband’s screams in the early hours of June 14 and hid terrified under the bedcovers as men, at least one of whom had an Australian accent, escaped the villa.

As for a possible motive, her lawyers said she told police: “I don’t why. I don’t know who [would want my husband dead] … I also want closure – I want to know.”

Gourdeas was so traumatised that she appeared to be on the verge of mental collapse, lawyer Sary Latief said at a press conference on Tuesday.

“She wants to be back with her kids, and she dreads going home to tell her children their father is not coming back,” Sary said, adding the youngest of the six children was nine months old.

The lawyers said Gourdeas and Radmanovic owned a heavy machinery business in Melbourne.

Another Melbourne man, Sanar Ghanim, who was once in a relationship with the stepdaughter of dead underworld figure Carl Williams, was beaten and shot in the leg in the attack but survived.

Ghanim had longer connections with Bali than Radmanovic and owned the luxury villa where the trio was staying, according to Dalimunthe and Tampubolon Lawyers, which is representing Gourdeas as well as Ghanim’s partner. The women are sisters.

The press conference on Tuesday was delayed by about two hours while a psychologist assessed Gourdeas. The legal team had hoped she would join them, but she was ultimately deemed unfit. They presented a handwritten note from Gourdeas instead.

Sanar Ghanim, who was once in a relationship with the stepdaughter of dead underworld figure Carl Williams, after being shot in Bali. He survived his wounds. Credit: Instagram

“I would like to start off by thanking the police and our lawyers from D&T Lawyers for all the help and support they’ve provided during this tragic time for myself and my family, especially for my late husband,” it read.

“I hope the media in Australia stops and realises this is a tragedy and can be more kind as we have six children. My husband was a loving man and the best dad in the world.

“Now I have the unimaginable [task] of going home to tell them he’s no longer here. So please respect our privacy so we can grieve his loss. Thank you.”

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