WHY AXE KILLER SNAPPED
Evil creep bludgeoned pregnant ex-partner with tomahawk and stomped on her stomach soon after police visit
FROM the moment police handed Brock Wall a domestic violence order, Fabiana Palhares’ fate was sealed. Within hours the Brazilian would be dead, after Wall bashed her with a tomahawk. The Bulletin can now reveal how Wall snuck into her home and ambushed her, leaving her to phone triple 0 while he fled. It has also emerged he had previous history of domestic violence which local police were not told about.
ONE of Fabiana Palhares’ closest friends has questioned the power of domestic violence orders after learning the extent she went to protect herself.
Rodrigo Themudo, who helped organise a tribute to Ms Palhares after her death, said the Brazilian community on the Gold Coast was now a lot more “careful” about who they interacted with.
He said he was not aware until after her death that she had taken out domestic violence orders against Wall.
“The restrictions that police gave ... they are just a piece of paper,” Mr Themudo said. “What is to stop them? “They wait for people to be killed to take any action.”
Mr Themudo said it felt like violence towards women was more acceptable than violence in a public area such as Surfers Paradise.
Mr Themudo was friends with Ms Palhares for about six years.
The pair met in English language school and stayed friends after they graduated.
He said he watched as she set up her cleaning business and made a life for herself on the Gold Coast.
“She would always come play with us (at Burleigh beach),” he said. “Since she met that guy she got a bit isolated from us.”
Ms Palhares fell pregnant towards the end of her relationship with Wall and was 10 weeks pregnant at the time of her murder.
Many friends told the Bulletin yesterday that they still found the circumstances around her death on February 2, 2015 too traumatising to speak about.
In the wake of her death those same friends raised $13,000 for the Palhares family to help return her body to Brazil.
The family were already stressed after her father suffered a heart-attack just a week before Ms Palhares’ death.
Hundreds also gathered at Burleigh Hill to commemorate the 35-year-old’s life just days after her murder.
The ceremony was conducted in both English and Portuguese.
Mr Themudo said the murder had changed the way he behaved with female friends.
He said since Ms Palhares’ death he had made sure to let his friends know that if they were in trouble they could come to him for help with no questions asked.