Police are probing a domestic link in the execution-style murder of a Malabar woman who was shot dead in front of her husband, one week before she would have celebrated her second wedding anniversary.
Neighbours yesterday said they were devastated by the murder which rocked the quiet community on Sunday night.
The woman, Jamie Fitzworme was scheduled to appear in court yesterday after she claimed that a protection order had been breached.
According to police, sometime after 9 pm, Fitzworme, 37, of Building 14, Unit 5, Bellbird Avenue, Malabar, was at home when two gunmen stormed in and shot her repeatedly.
Police said the woman’s husband Gregory Fitzworme, 40, was at home when the killers pushed him aside and killed his wife.
Speaking with members of the media at their Malabar home yesterday, neighbours of Fitzworme, who requested anonymity, said the 37-year-old mother of five daughters was a pleasant woman.
The women said because of their schedules they would hardly interact with each other but whenever they did their encounters wer always pleasant.
It was the neighbours who told the media that Fitzworme was once in an abusive relationship and had since moved on, marrying her husband, Gregory, two years ago.
“She had five daughters and two of them were home, the two youngest, about seven and five, they came running and the older one had blood on her jersey,” one neighbour said.
Another neighbour said the children told them that their mother begged not only for her life but for the life of the little girls. Fitzworme died in the family’s laundry room.
The killers, who wore jumpsuits with reflective strips on them, ran off after killing her.
“Last night was horrible. I couldn’t sleep. I heard the gunshots five in all. First I hear three and then two more,” an elderly neighbour said, adding she was still shaking.
A contractor, who did work for the couple two days before the murder, said he heard of the killing and did not believe it and came to the crime scene just to be sure.
While speaking with the media, Homicide officers were seen going door-to-door of neighbours conducting interviews.
Fitzworme is one of 16 women killed out of 220 recorded murders and like most of the other 15 fingers are being pointed in the direction of a domestic dispute.