Controlling dad executed his daughter and her husband before shooting himself

A cruel and callous father who executed his own daughter and her husband has been described as a ‘monster’. 

Truck driver Osman Shaptafaj had tormented his estranged family for most of their lives before embarking on the horror New Year’s Eve shooting in Yarraville, west of Melbourne, to mark the end of 2019. 

Lindita Musai, 25, had been trying to start a new life away from her father when she and her new husband Veton, 29, were shot in the back of their heads on the front porch of their family’s home. 

The Albanian Australian Islamic Society mosque in Carlton North in January last year when thousands lined the street to pay their respects to the murdered couple

The couple married about a year before they were murdered but had been dating for at least five years

Blasted through the head: But not brain dead, Osman Shaptafaj survived despite putting two bullets into his own head

Lindita was dead before she hit the ground, with Veton hanging onto life until the next day until his life support was pulled. 

The shocking circumstances leading up to the shootings have been outlined in the Supreme Court of Victoria as part of the killer’s pre-sentence plea. 

Shaptafaj, now aged 57, had placed the Smith and Wesson 38-calibre handgun to his own head directly after the murders but decided not to shoot himself then and there. 

Instead, he walked to grassland just down the road where witnesses saw him put the gun to his chin and fire. 

The bullet took out most of his right eye, but didn’t kill him. 

He rose to his feet and fired again, but death would not greet him warm. 

On Tuesday, the court heard Shaptafaj could never accept that his daughter wanted nothing to do with him. 

Born in Montenegro, the brute had travelled to Australia in 1988 and married a year later. 

It had not been a pleasant union, with Shaptafaj tormenting Lindita, her brother and their mother for years before they finally fled his cruel grip in 2008. 

Lindita’s brother Arben Shaptafaj, who had initially stuck with his dad, told the court his father had been hellbent on vengeance against his daughter. 

Lindita Musai (left) had been trying to start a new life away from her father when she and her new husband Veton (right) were shot in the back of their head

Osman Shaptafaj killed his daughter and her husband before turning the gun on himself

 The couple were found on the front porch of their house with gunshot wounds to their upper bodies

He had got his hands on a gun in 2011, which he placed to his son’s cheek. 

Shaptafaj believed she had ruined his life. 

Later that year he attacked the then 17-year old Lindita after she told him she wanted to live with her mother.

The police were called, intervention orders were taken out and she swore never to see him again. 

‘Lindita hated him more than anything in the world as a result of the physical abuse we all suffered from him,’ Arben told police. 

‘She always believed that our family would have been amazing if it wasn’t for (him).’

Cut off, the three lived in harmony for years oblivious that one day the ‘monster’ would return to haunt them. 

‘For the first time in a very long time we were a happy family with the three of us,’ Arben said. 

‘There was love and a genuine positivity about our lives moving towards the future.’

Lindita had fallen in love with Veton and the pair had been married nearly a year to the day they would ultimately die. 

‘We believed that we would finally be able to put behind us the nightmare we had to endure with the monster,’ Arben said. 

Cold-blooded killer Osman Shaptafaj in another Facebook rant

Osman Shaptafaj turned a gun on himself after killing his own daughter and her husband

The happy couple had celebrated their first anniversary with a stay in the city over the three days leading up to their deaths. 

They had just arrived home, where they lived with Veton’s family, when Shaptafaj struck. 

They never knew what hit them. 

Shaptafaj shot them one-by-one from near point blank range in the back of the head. 

The carnage of the immediate aftermath of that incident was laid bare before the court. 

Veton’s older brother Drilon Musai faced off with his brother’s killer by delivering in person a harrowing victim impact statement. 

It was but one among a whopping 28 submitted to the court by friends and family of the victims. 

Mr Musai had been inseparable from his brother since birth. 

Such was their bond, the pair had been in the process of building adjoining townhouses so that their families could live together as neighbours. 

‘He was my best friend, he was my confidante, he was my partner in crime,’ Mr Musai told the court. 

‘We lived under the same roof all of our lives and our rooms were never more than a metre apart from one another.’

The couple had wed in 2019 before they were shot on the front porch of their house

Osman Shaptafaj executed Lindita and Veton Musai (left and centre) a year after they were married. Her brother Arben Shaptafaj (right) described their father as a ‘monster’

Lindita and Veton Musai had spent three wonderful days celebrating their first anniversary when her father shot them both dead 

Mr Musai said  the death of his brother had left him a shell of a man, who was now unable to even laugh because he shared the identical laugh to that of his dead brother. 

Breaking down in tears several times, Mr Musai said he was forced to plan his brother and sister-in-law’s funerals a year after planning their weddings. 

He described his sister-in-law as having poise, grace and a silly side that would make those around her buckle with laughter. 

The court heard the despair felt by the Musai’s loved ones remained raw, with one person seen to be making a ‘gun-to-the-head- gesture toward Shaptafaj in the courtroom.  

Shaptafaj’s barrister Tanya Skortsova could provide little explanation for her client’s outrageous behaviour. 

She told the court Shaptafaj had been an angry loner, who wasted away his life playing video games and watching television inside his Altona North home. 

Like many a killer, Shaptafaj had been suffering depression, which was compounded by a motorbike accident that had left him unable to work. 

It was a condition the killer had tried to use to get out of taking responsibility for the murders. 

Shaptafaj had initially tried to contest the charges, but backflipped after he failed in an attempt to claim mental impairment. 

Psychiatrists acting for the Crown had dismissed claims the killer was unfit to plead to the crimes due to mental illness.  

Even now, Shaptafaj hopes his depression might earn him some concession when Justice Andrew Tinney sentences him in a date to be fixed. 

The Yarraville home where Lindita and Veton Musai met their doom 

Lindita Musai, 25, (pictured) was shot dead and her husband Veto Musai, 29, critically injured in a hail of bullets at their western Melbourne home

Lindita and Veton Musia (left and centre) were blasted through the head at near point blank range on New Year’s Eve