A teenager who suffered from a mental illness reportedly stopped taking his medication two days before allegedly ‘bashing a 64-year-old woman to death with his bare hands’, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Emergency services were called to a unit complex in Sandal Crescent in Carramar, 30km west of the Sydney CBD, just before 1.30pm on Saturday. Attempts to revive the victim, Kristina Kalnic, were unsuccessful and she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officers from Fairfield City Police Area Command arrested 18-year-old former rugby player Imaueli Jone Degei after a short foot pursuit.
Police allege that 18-year-old rugby player Imaueli Jone Degei bashed 64-year-old Ms Kalnic to death
Kristina Kalnic was well-liked amongst her neighbours in the area and led a quiet life
The teenager has been charged with one count of murder and was denied bail by Magistrate John Crawford following a short court hearing.
His next hearing will take place at Fairfield Local Court on October 22.
Ms Kalnic was well-liked in the area and led a quiet life, according to shocked neighbours who laid floral tributes at the well-tendered garden she took pride in.
Meanwhile, the family of the former rugby player have said that his mental health issues were reportedly exacerbated following the untimely death of his boxing champion father, who passed away six years ago at age 57, according to theDaily Telegraph.
Niko Degei was a Fiji and South Seas heavyweight boxing champion who won the South Seas heavyweight title in 1983.
Degei was ‘never the same’ after his father died, family members said.
Paramedics frantically tried to revive Ms Kalnic outside her unit complex in Carramar but she was pronounced dead at the scene
Police arrested Degei at the scene following a short foot pursuit and took him to Fairfield Police Station where he was charged with murder
At age 11, he was forced to step up to the role of ‘man of the house’ and look after his two younger brothers.
The teenager had reportedly been known to the local community’s mental health team ‘for years’.
A friend told the Daily Telegraph that ‘he would never hurt a fly, he was well behaved and quiet at school, he never even sat detention once.’