Case 103
The Gonzales Family
On 10 July 2001, New South Wales police received a frantic phone call from 21-year-old Sef Gonzales. He’d just returned home to discover that his mother Loiva, father Teddy, and younger sister Clodine had been the victims of a brutal murder.
Amidst the bloody crime scene, the perpetrator had scrawled a racial slur on the kitchen wall in what appeared to be a racially motivated hate crime against the Filipino family. Police suspected that the murders occurred as part of a botched robbery, but the evidence didn’t quite add up. As the investigation progressed, it became clear that all was not as it seemed.
CREDITS
EPISODE:
Research & writing – Gemma Harris
Additional writing and editing – Milly Raso and Elsha McGill
Narration – Anonymous Host
MUSIC:
‘Flatline intro’ and ‘Come play with me’ intro and outro – www.dl-sounds.com
Audio production – Mike Migas
Scoring – Mike Migas and Andrew Joslyn
OTHER:
Logo and website design – Paulina Szymanska
RESOURCES
COURT DOCUMENTS:
BOOKS:
Unmasked: The Gonzales Family Killer – Lawrence, K.
ARTICLES:
Safe as houses: 6 Collins St, North Ryde – Finder
Mystery buyer pays $720,000 for Gonzales murder house – The Sydney Morning Herald
Agents in court over horror house – The Sydney Morning Herald
Estate agents fined over triple murder house – The Age
Gonzales house case prompts law review – The Sydney Morning Herald
We live in the Sef Gonzales murder house – Woman’s Day
Australian & New Zealand Forensic Science Society – NSW Branch Newsletter, Issue 30
Three corners of my world are gone: Sef farewells his dead family – The Sydney Morning Herald
Family killer Gonzales cries unfair treatment – Daily Telegraph
Family too scared to live in house of horror – The Sydney Morning Herald
Portrait of a once happy family: the triple murder haunting detectives – The Sydney Morning Herald
Gonzales house fails to sell – The Sydney Morning Herald
Gonzales pawned jewellery, court told – The Sydney Morning Herald
Sins of the son – The Sydney Morning Herald
Sef Gonzales loses appeal – The Sydney Morning Herald
Gonzales granted appeal – The Sydney Morning Herald
My child, my killer – The Sydney Morning Herald
A life left incomplete: only son sings a tearful farewell to his family – The Sydney Morning Herald
Bloody race hate scrawl found in death house – The Sydney Morning Herald
Police saw Gonzales as a suspect – Daily Telegraph
Sef Gonzales found guilty of family murder – ABC.net.au
Killer Sef Gonzales loses bid for new trial over life sentence for murder of mum, dad and sister – Daily Telegraph
Gonzales loses appeal over triple murder – The Sydney Morning Herald
Houses of horror – can a murder house absorb evil? – News.com.au
Man guilty of killing parents, sister – The Age
Down to his last $400, Gonzales urgently needs money for triple murder defence – The Sydney Morning Herald
Estate agents fined over triple murder house – The Age
Evidence tests key Gonzales motive – The Sydney Morning Herald
Family killer will die in jail – The Sydney Morning Herald
Family murder trial told of death threat – The Sydney Morning Herald
Gonzales admits lying to friends but says he did not kill – The Sydney Morning Herald
Gonzales appeals on ‘poisoned’ evidence – The Sydney Morning Herald
Gonzales guilty of killing family – The Age
Gonzales murder house drops $80,000 – The Sydney Morning Herald
Gonzales on poison threat charge – The Sydney Morning Herald
Gonzales tells court of his suffering – The Sydney Morning Herald
Gonzales to die in jail – The Age
Gonzales to stand trial for murder – The Sydney Morning Herald
Guilty: the monster child Sef – The Sydney Morning Herald
It wasn’t me, insists Gonzales – The Sydney Morning Herald
Lies, lies, lies: Sef Gonzales admits telling 20 of them – The Sydney Morning Herald
Murdered Gonzales parents controlled their children’s lives, court told – The Sydney Morning Herald
Sef admits to regrets, but no guilt – The Sydney Morning Herald
Son may have written message left at murder scene, says expert – The Sydney Morning Herald
Student killed family to stop ‘life unravelling’ – The Sydney Morning Herald.
WEBSITES:
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