Scene they’ll never forget
Top cop tells how horrific murder of Fabiana Palhares has changed police
THE horrific scene that confronted detectives investigating the killings of Fabiana Palhares and her unborn child is not one they will forget.
This week Brock Wall was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for the brutal tomahawk slaying of Ms Palhares in February 2015. So shocking was his crime, Justice Ann Lyons described it as “the stuff of nightmares.”
Detective Inspector Marc Hogan told The Gold Coast Bulletin the killing was a horrific and prolonged attack on a pregnant woman by a man obsessed with power and control.
Months before her murder Wall had attacked Ms Palhares on Christmas Day, 2014. He kicked her and spat on her. Trying to protect her unborn child, she hid under a coffee table. She ended the relationship after the assault.
Domestic Violence Orders (DVO) were put in place, but Wall would not stay away.
Days before he killed his ex-partner and the mother of his unborn child, Wall told a co-worker, “I am going to (expletive) kill her. I might punch her in the guts first.”
Five days later on February 2, 2015, Wall was issued with another variation on his DVO about 12.30pm.
Hours later Ms Palhares was dead, at the age of just 34, an expectant mother.
The brutality of her murder will stay with the detectives. Wall had jumped on her stomach so hard the soles of his shoes were identifiable as bruises on her skin. He hit her with the tomahawk he found in her garage with such force her scalp exploded.
It took police just 17 minutes to arrive. They found Ms Palhares with a faint pulse. She was rushed to hospital, but could not be saved.
Wall was found a few streets away, covered in blood. He told police: “I have done something bad.”
A medical examination of Ms Palhares’ body found she had fractured ribs, a split jaw and boot marks on her stomach.
“I remember going there and turning up to the place and you realise this was all done with intent,” Insp Hogan said.
“He showed absolutely no remorse of any kind in terms of taking the life of the child as well. I would say it was a prolonged, very brutal attack, where an implement was used. When you see it you can only imagine what would have been going on during the event and how much the victim would have suffered.”
Wall was obsessed with power and control, he said.
“The events leading up to that day, to what happened in that house, were events that we would now call, perhaps triggers, in terms of that person and his beliefs and how he thought,” Insp Hogan said.
“She was in a protective frame of mind and that was enough, for whatever reason,