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

 

Casefile Presents

 

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:

Regina v Gonzales [2004]

 

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:

Philippines

Sef Gonzales

Philippines’ Poverty Rate Declines; More Well-Paying Jobs and Opportunities Needed

1990 Luzon Earthquake

 

OTHER RESOURCES:

‘Daisy’s Dedication page to Seffie’

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