OUR BIG BAD NIGHTMARE
From normal family to seeing a sheet pulled over their loving mother’s battered body
THE Gold Coast family of Kym Cobby, 51, say they wake up each day crying as they try to get their heads around the “big bad nightmare” of her death. The mother of three was allegedly killed by her estranged husband Andrew Cobby metres from her Worongary home last month. Today, for the first time, Kym’s sister Kaye Eden, her eldest son Joel and mother Olwyn Schulz talk about her final hours, her relationship with Andrew Cobby, their financial struggle and what the future holds.
KYM COBBY died in the dark of night on a suburban Worongary street less than two weeks after her 51st birthday.
Her estranged husband Andrew Cobby was later charged with her murder after being found one street away several hours later.
It can be revealed that 10 hours before she died, Kym planned to go shopping with Andrew and her son.
For the first time since Kym’s death on November 12, Joel, Kym’s mother, Olwyn Schulz, and sister, Kaye Eden, talk about life without the loving mother, her relationship with Andrew, their financial struggles and the uncertain future for her three children, aged 13 to 23.
SUBURBAN LIFE
THE Australian flag on the pole high above the house where Kym Cobby lived is torn and faded.
A long driveway stretches from the road to the home, which is lined by a paddock containing a lone horse.
The four-acre Worongary property was home to Kym, her three children — Joel, 23, Luke, 17 and Ella, 13 — and her mother for more than a decade before the 51-year-old was killed.
The family don’t know if they’ll be able to keep the house now, because money is tight without Kym to work in the traffic control business.
“We’ve lived here (on the Gold Coast) since 1974,” Olwyn says.
“My late husband (Noel Schulz) was a police officer. I lost him 14 years ago. The house was built on the ninth of March (2003) and we moved in at Easter that year so he didn’t get to see the house.
“He had pancreatic cancer so he had a pretty swift one.
“(Noel) worked at Broadbeach, Southport, Brisbane and Ipswich ...
“He retired at 55 and we lost him at 65, so we’ve had a very stressful run.”
Kym ran the house after her father died.
“We were just a normal family before all of this,” Kaye says.
“They sort of took care of each other, Kym and Mum. They’d call each other right hand and left hand.
“Going back when Dad passed away, Kym filled that void of Dad — ran the household, paid the bills and took care of Mum. (Mum) didn’t even know what was in her bank account.”
THE DAY SHE DIED
KYM Cobby’s mum, Olwyn, leaves her phone on the filing cabinet in the kitchen at night.
She didn’t hear it ring at 11pm on November 12 to say Kym had been found bleeding on the road.
The family still don’t know why Kym was outside.
“I thought she’d had a car accident when the police came,” Olwyn says.
“I knew one (of the officers) from Mudgeeraba and I said: ‘Kym’s not dead?’ and he said: ‘Yes’.”
November 12 had been a pretty normal day for the family.
“I got a massage from Dad that day,” Joel says.
“Mum drove me over, they’d give each other a kiss as they left, so they were still obviously on some terms more than what you (would usually be) if you were separated.”
The family had planned to go shopping but Andrew told them he couldn’t make it because he was meeting friends from Sydney.
Joel and Kym went home and she cooked dinner before they all went to bed.
Luke stayed up playing video games.
“I went to bed and so did she, and that was it,” Joel says.
“I think she might have mentioned to Luke she was going out to the bin, because the bin was for collection the next day.”
Craig, Kaye’s ex-husband, found Kym on the road She was laying near the big white house at the end of the street, bleeding.
“(Craig) tried to call a couple of times but Nan leaves her phone on the filing cabinet, not next to her bed, and Luke was playing video games and obviously cracked it and got up and answered,” Joel says.
“He went running down the street and called me and I went up.
“I arrived on scene and saw everything ... I saw them working on her and then the sheet came out.”
Andrew was found one street away, about 1am.
“They said there were head injuries and the report came out that said there was a weapon located but the weapon doesn’t match the cause of death,” Joel says.
“We’ve been told there was a weapon but she died of a neck compression (so) that wouldn’t add up to a weapon.” Andrew Cobby was later charged with Kym’s murder. He is yet to be committed to trial.
LIFE AFTER
JOEL Cobby says his mum’s death threw everything into a “giant cobweb”.
“It was frantic, there was no routine and we were against the clock with everything.
“The house was a crime scene; I couldn’t come back here at all. I didn’t have a phone, no phone numbers, so we couldn’t contact people and they were all over the place.
“The investigation, planning the funeral, everything ... bank accounts, internet, phones, were all under Mum’s name.
“By the time the funeral was done I went under the knife three days later for a major spinal operation and now I’ve been off work and trying to manage my back and being in chronic pain.”
Joel says taking on a major role in the family after his mother’s death and father’s arrest has been tough.
“It’s the struggle of trying to take on learning how to care for the family.
“Mum and Ella shared a room. They were very close, which is making the transition hard to make Ella sleep by herself.
“We never had any financial assistance from Dad but from Mum we did. So we’ve got a lot of challenges now.
“I’ve been off work and we’ve had a GoFundMe started because we want to keep money in an account for the next couple of years so I have money to pay phone bills, food, fuel and pay power bills and just know something is there.
“It would make a world of difference ...
“Luke is a type 1 diabetic so we have to get him a new insulin pump in July.”
Olwyn says losing her daughter is like a “big bad nightmare”.
“I wake up, I go to bed and I’ve got her on my mind all day,” she says through tears.
It has changed things for the traffic control business too, now that Kym isn’t there to organise everything.
“We used to do Magic Millions every year but they sort of thought we’d be too stressed to do it,” Olwyn says.
“We’re keeping it (the business) going this next year, I’ve just paid the public liability.”
ANDREW COBBY
KYM’S mum and sister say Andrew made some enemies.
He’d been a stock market trader for more than two decades prior to his arrest.
“We’ve had 15 years of hell, really, with people coming up here knocking on the door looking for him,” Kaye says.
“Private investigators knocking on the door, we have been through a lot.
“People would always call out of the blue and say: ‘Is Andrew Cobby there?’ and we’d say: “He doesn’t live here’.”
Joel says it was never exac-
tly clear who had turned up at the house or what they were after.
The boy is determined to let the justice system take its course when it comes to allegations his father killed his mother.
“You probably need to have a more optimistic mind because they didn’t catch him in the act and he was located 800m away, four hours later,” Joel says.
“They’ve obviously had enough evidence to charge him but without knowing (the motive) there are just so many inconsistencies in the story ...
“I was getting a massage from Dad 10 hours before.
“There was no history of domestic violence between them, I’ve never seen them have a verbal fight, let alone a physical one so ... it just doesn’t make sense.”
Joel says his brother and sister are his priority.
“Being angry isn’t going to help. There is just no point having such a negative view of things in your head because it’s not going to get you anywhere.
“What’s happened, it is what it is. Whether he did it or not, that’s a completely different story. You’ve got to deal with them as two different events.
“Police say on paper it is a domestic violence murder ... If it had traits leading up to it then yes, but this didn’t.”
The 23-year-old says he’s trying to keep the idea of his father being convicted out of his mind.
“I haven’t let myself go there.
“I’m keeping an optimistic mind but I don’t really want to do any visitation or contact.
“My mind hasn’t even wandered there at all. Even if you’re sitting at home having a glass of wine and you get a bit tipsy, I haven’t sort of let my mind wander there even subconsciously.”
THE RELATIONSHIP
Kym was working in a newsagent at Ashmore City when she met Andrew at age 15.
“She would have been 21 (years old) when they married. She was 21 in the November and they got married in the October,” Kaye says.
The pair had three children together, but separated when Joel was in primary school.
“Mum and Dad hadn’t lived together since I was six or seven years old,” Joel says.
“They never separated over the years, I mean, they’d still kiss each other when they saw each other. They’d still talk.”
Andrew traded on the stock market and his job was always a sticking point for Kym and her Olwyn.
“There had been a lot of background dramas with Dad financially so Nan and Mum fought a lot,” Joel says.
In the early days, Andrew lived over the fence from the family home on Arthur Payne Court.
“Luke and I lived with him for a couple of years when Dad was renting a house on the other side of the fence at St Andrews Height’s (Estate),” Joel says.
“Mum still lived here ... (she) would walk to the house and stay there pretty much all day and have dinner but she never moved in and stayed when she had the opportunity to do so. Why she did that, who knows.”
Joel says the pair were clearly still holding on to something.
“I wouldn’t say it was positive because Mum wouldn’t get her life together and separate.
“They weren’t together and they weren’t planning on getting back together but they weren’t planning on separating, so it was kind of in a limbo. Just a constant, permanent limbo for a good 10-15 years.”
THE MUM
KYM Cobby’s kids were her life.
“Mum was quiet, not a materialistic person, but you wouldn’t know it looking around here,” Joel says with a laugh.
Kym was obviously sentimental. Photographs of her late father are scattered throughout the home alongside cabinets full of glassware that look as though they are kept only for special occasions.
“She didn’t have good fashion sense, she wore the daggiest clothes,” Joel says.
Her sister Kaye describes her as a “real homebody” but a sister who was always there to go shopping or have a natter and coffee with.
Part of Kym always believed Andrew would buy them a home and take them on holiday with money he told her was coming in from overseas bank accounts, her sister says.
She’d tell the kids to pack their bags or that her “friends at the tax office” were helping her and Andrew bring money from offshore accounts.
“It was all a game to her,” Joel says. “They had their millions in the overseas bank accounts and their friends in the tax department bringing money into the country but she couldn’t tell you the name or who it was.”
Olywin says Kym’s undoing was never getting that clean break from Andrew.
“That was our main issue, always.
“I used to say to her get a divorce, Kym. Break away from what you’re in. I was always fearful of Kym when she’d go out of a night time. I used to worry ...”