Case 351: Neelma, Kunal & Sidhi Singh

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It was just after 2 o'clock on the afternoon of Tuesday, April 22, 2003, when 33-year-old Max Sica pulled into Glass Tree Close, a quiet cul-de-sac in the leafy outer Brisbane suburb of Bridgeman Downs. He parked in front of the large, two-story brick home belonging to the Singh family. Max's ex-girlfriend, 24-year-old Neelma Singh, lived at the property with her parents and two younger siblings, 18-year-old brother Kunal and 12-year-old sister Sidhi. Although Max and Neelma were no longer romantically involved, they still saw each other often, and Max had brought his two children and niece with him to see if the Singhs would like to go see a movie. Max had tried to call Neelma earlier, but she hadn't answered, so he decided to just show up instead. This wasn't something he would normally do. Neelma's parents didn't approve of the two spending time together, and he wasn't welcome at their home. But her parents were currently on an overseas trip, leaving Neelma in charge of the household. Max and the kids got out of the car and walked across the front lawn to knock on the door. There was no answer. Max tried calling Neelma's mobile as well as the Singh's landline, but nobody picked up. Max told his 11-year-old son to go check if the Singh's car was parked in the attached garage. The boy reported that the car was there, as was the family's pet dog, a Jack Russell puppy named Bujo. Max's son then went around the back of the house and peered in through the kitchen window, but he couldn't see anybody inside. The entire house was eerily silent and still, unusual for the typically vibrant household. The Singh's were an Indian Fijian family who had immigrated to Australia from Fiji seven years prior, and their home was usually a hive of activity. Not only were the three Singh children well-liked and popular, with friends coming and going, but their father Vijay was a successful businessman, and their mother Shirley was a beauty and massage therapist who ran a salon from home. It was strange for the house to be so quiet. Max tried the door at the rear of the garage and found that it was unlocked. This was odd. Neelma always kept the door locked unless she was outside having a cigarette. Having visited the property several times before, Max knew that internal access to the house could be gained via the garage. He handed his car keys to his children and told them to go wait in the car while he checked inside. The children returned to the vehicle and played among themselves. About 10 to 20 minutes later, they saw Max emerge from the house holding the dog, Bujo, and sobbing.

Minutes earlier, Max had placed a call to Triple Zero requesting police assistance. I've got three dead bodies in a bathtub, he said.

What to expect? Downstairs, in the dining room, water was dripping from the waterlogged ceiling, which had started to buckle and looked like it could collapse at any moment. While the rest of the ground floor showed nothing out of the ordinary, the upstairs, where the home's four bedrooms were, told a different story. At the top of the carpeted staircase, there was a streak of blood in the carpet. Those streaks continued down the hallway, leading from Neelma's room to the main bedroom belonging to her parents. The police followed the blood smears into the main bedroom, where they noticed another streak of blood on the carpet, as well as spatters of blood on the bed and surrounding wall. But it was in the adjoining ensuite that the true horror of the situation was unveiled. The spa bath that overlooked the window was overflowing, and the surface of water was murky, brimming with bodily fluids and foam. A pile of blankets, sheets, pillows and towels had been thrown into the water, partially concealing what lay within.

While these conditions made it difficult for the police to know exactly what they were dealing with, they identified what looked like the body of a young woman lying across the top of the spa. It was 24-year-old Neelma Singh. Underneath her, they could see the arm and leg of her 12-year-old sister, Sidhi. Both of their bodies were pale and clammy, indicating they'd been in the hot water for a considerable amount of time. Having been told that there were three bodies in the home, the officers cast their eyes around the ensuite, looking for the third. It was only when they lifted one of the blankets and peered into the spa for a second time that they noticed a pair of hairy male legs submerged at the bottom, belonging to 18-year-old Kunal. Max Sica told the police that when he'd first entered the home, he'd smelled a terrible stench. Fearing someone could be in the house, he grabbed a large wooden spoon from the garage to arm himself and followed the dog upstairs. He heard a tap running and followed the sound into Shirley and Vijay's ensuite, where he found the spa bath on and water all over the floor. Max said he turned the taps off and then used the wooden spoon to lift the blankets up, which is when he saw the bodies of the three siblings and called triple zero from the upstairs landline. Max was visibly distressed and his parents quickly arrived at the scene to comfort him. The Seekers were a proud Italian family who had known the Singhs for roughly seven years, having met them when the Singhs first moved to Australia and into the house next door to theirs in the Brisbane suburb of Stafford Heights. Max's father Carlo had warmly welcomed the Singhs with pizzas from his pizzeria. Over time, the two families got to know each other well, with Carlo Seeker acting as a kind of father figure to the Singh children when their own father Vijay was overseas on business. As they watched the house team with investigators and tried to comfort their distraught son, it was difficult to comprehend the horrors that lay within.