‘MIKAYLA IS OUR LITTLE MIRACLE’
After a terrifying pregnancy, brave mum Tamika wouldn’t change her little girl for the world
Watching toddler Mikayla Kelly tear around her loungeroom at full speed, there’s no hint that her life was ever in danger.
But more than two years after giving birth to her precious girl, who was born missing half of her left forearm, Sydney mum Tamika Bax still gets emotional when she thinks of her pregnancy.
The 30-year-old, who has two other children, Isaac, 11, Savannah, seven, and stepson, Maison, 13, fell pregnant with Mikayla four months after suffering a miscarriage, and says she was “extremely paranoid” when she arrived at her 19-week routine scan.
But her anxiety went into overdrive when the sonographer couldn’t locate her baby’s arm while measuring her growth.
“The technician was silent, and I could hear my heart thumping in my ears,” recalls Tamika. “I asked if there was something wrong and he said, ‘Yes,’ and left to get another doctor to take a look. I sat up and I couldn’t breathe, then I started bawling my eyes out.”
Tamika was terrified when she returned to hospital the next day to undergo an amniocentesis – where a thin needle is used to take amniotic fluid from the sac around the foetus – to test for chromosomal abnormalities.
‘The technician was silent, and I could hear my heart thumping’
After an excruciating 10-day wait, Tamika and her partner Michael Kelly, 33, were told the results were “low risk” and “normal”, but she was still pushed towards terminating the pregnancy, which haunts her to this day.
“Their words were, ‘You need to make a decision because some parents cannot stand the thought of having a child with missing limbs,’” explains Tamika. “They also told me even if the results were ‘normal’ they wouldn’t know if my baby would have ongoing issues until she was two or three. Abortion wasn’t an option for us, so we just hoped our child would adapt to her arm.”
Doctors were baffled and the only explanation they could provide was that Mikayla’s left forearm and hand just never developed.
Mikayla has thrived since the day the couple welcomed her into the world, March 3, 2020, and proudly boasts about her “lucky fin”.
Tamika beams with pride as she describes Mikayla as a confident, independent girl who doesn’t let anything slow her down.
She enjoys sharing Mikayla’s journey on social media hoping to raise awareness and help support people with physical differences.
While most people have been kind and supportive, Tamika says she’s received some nasty comments from trolls. “I’ve had to delete horrible comments and block people because the things they say about a child infuriate me,” says Tamika. “Words hurt and I have cried so much. But there are so many beautiful people out there and the good outweighs the bad.” Having recently celebrated Mikayla’s second birthday, Tamika and Michael don’t fear for her future like they once did. In fact, Tamika says she hopes her girl, who will soon be fitted for a prosthetic limb, will go on to be an inspiration to other children with physical differences.
“She constantly surprises me by how well she adapts,” adds Tamika. “I know her future will be bright, and I will continue to let her know she will move mountains just the way she is. I can’t imagine life without her and her lucky fin.”
It’s August 26, 1925, and in Perth’s elegant Government House Ballroom, a dashing young man, Cyril Gidley, is dancing with a lady friend. They’re enjoying themselves at the local hospital’s annual charity dance, a glittering event enjoyed by hundreds of revellers.
Dapper in his new dinner suit, with white gloves and silver watch, Cyril, 25, has no idea his life is about to end.
Suddenly, a young woman in a dazzling blue gown approaches him, waving a revolver. She fires a bullet straight at Cyril, who collapses onto the dancefloor and within minutes he is dead.
SHOCKING CRIME
The woman with the gun, Audrey Jacob, 20, is quickly surrounded, and the weapon taken from her. She is led away by police, as the startled band of musicians begin playing God Save The King and horrified guests are ushered out into the night. It’s a devastating ending to the ball, and one that will set tongues wagging for years.
Audrey is soon charged with the murder of Cyril, a British maritime engineer, who, it turns out, is her ex-fiance.
This shocking crime and the murder trial made headlines around Australia.
One journalist, who’d attended the ball and witnessed the shooting firsthand, said of the victim’s last moments, “I saw a dreadful smear of blood on the young man’s face, increasing, as I looked, to a trickle. His eyes were half open and there was a sense of wandering terror in them.” Audrey, he wrote in Perth tabloid The Mirror, “was pallid and dazed, with a look of ‘What have I done? What has happened?’ She was unnaturally calm and almost trance-like.”
But despite having fired the fatal bullet surrounded by witnesses, Audrey Jacob was found not guilty of Cyril’s murder. She walked free, to the cheers of onlookers packing the courtroom.
A WRONGED WOMAN
She clearly killed her lover – so how did she manage to get away with it?
Historian Leigh Straw, whose book The Ballroom Murder covers the case, says it was all thanks to the young woman’s brilliant lawyer, Arthur Haynes. A media-friendly show pony, he depicted Audrey as a woman wronged by a cruel and manipulative ex who had also once raped her.
‘She was unnaturally calm and almost trance-like’
“Haynes persuaded the jury it was an accidental shooting, brought on by the act of Cyril ignoring Audrey and publicly slighting her,” Leigh tells Woman’s Day.
Their romance had started so well. Audrey and Cyril, who worked on a ship, the Kangaroo, had met in mid-1924 and it was love at first sight. On October 8, 1924, they announced their engagement in the Perth newspapers. But tensions soon arose, and they broke off the engagement weeks before the shooting.
Audrey’s parents had not approved of Cyril and her mother told the court how he became domineering and harsh towards her daughter.
Yet the Crown argued that Cyril was the one who was scared. After his death, a note was found in his belongings, in his handwriting, saying Audrey had “threatened my life... this note is in case she does keep her vow”.
But Audrey’s lawyer told the jury there was no proof Cyril wrote the note, and to ignore it.
When Audrey took the stand, she told the packed courtroom her mother gave her the gun for protection as she lived alone in the city. The night she spotted Cyril at the ball, dancing with another woman and ignoring her, she fled back to her rented room and took up the gun, intending to kill herself. But somehow she’d found herself back at the ball, approaching Cyril.
SOMETHING SNAPPED
He’d said to her, “Excuse me, I’m dancing.” After that, “Something snapped in my head. I don’t remember anything more,” she told the court.
The jury decided the young woman wasn’t responsible for firing the fatal bullet into his chest.
“I think because she was caught with the gun in her hand, the police and prosecution didn’t dream Audrey would be acquitted, and were taken off guard by the talented defence lawyer,” Leigh reflects.
“This case remains one of the most remarkable in Australia’s criminal history,” says Leigh.
Audrey married a rich American and spent the rest of her life in the United States, but much of her life remains a mystery.
“She does have a daughter and relatives still live in Australia. If anyone reading this knows anything more about her, I’d love to hear from them!” says Leigh.
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