Murder victim Lisa Harnum with her partner Simon Gittany. Source: News Limited
A STRONG sense of jealousy, a sense of entitlement and insecurity — they are all attributes found in people who kill. And it's usually someone you know.
In Australia the killer isn't someone who creeps into your home at night or abducts you on the way home, it will likely be your partner, family member or a friend.
"It's the person down the street, it is someone you know, who you're acquainted, who is deranged but not necessarily a stranger. It's not necessarily cold comfort but it's reality,'' Criminologist Professor Paul Mazerolle told news.com.au.
Murders committed by strangers do occur but are less common.
Rachelle Yeo's murder fit the profile of a typical Australian homicide. She was stabbed to death by her former partner after she ended their affair.: Source: News Limited
The most likely day to be killed is on Sunday, between midnight and 6am, according to a report by the Australian Institute of Criminology that examined more than 500 homicides throughout Australia between 2008 and 2010. And the average age of victims was 38 with the average killer being 32.
Prof Mazerolle, who has studied hundreds of killings as part of the national homicide monitoring project, recently led a conference at Queensland's Griffith University where criminologists from Australia and around the world delved into the reasons why people commit murder.
The reasons were complex and difficult to predict but there were often warning signs that came up repeatedly.
Unusual levels of jealousy, a sense of entitlement and insecurity were a dangerous mix for an already unstable person, Prof Mazerolle said.
Another major trigger for murder was an increasing fear by killers that their partners were cheating on them — and research shows this could worsen in the four months prior to a murder.
Add a relationship breakdown and the threat of losing access to children and the results can be lethal.
- Paul Mulvihill was found guilty of stabbing Rachelle Yeo to death after she broke off their affair. Source: News Corp Australia
However, there were many violent people who had an insecure attachment that "don't go onto kill their partners" so it's not clear what sets those people apart from ones that finally commit murder.
"That's the $64,000 question," Prof Mazerolle said.
Other research confirmed men in particular tend not to cope when they lose something they're attached to, such as a relationship breakdown or custody battle. "It's a cognitive distortion [of what's actually happening] but it helps paint a picture."
In those situations support was crucial. "If you are well integrated with your children, your friends and your employment it can be a protective factor. But if men feel like there is nothing left for them then they make some bad decisions."
The 2011 murder of Lisa Harnum by her partner Simon Gittany, where she was thrown over an apartment balcony and fell 15 floors to her death, was a tragic example.
"Take that situation, the angry outburst, the insecure attachment … I think the pictures in the elevator were quite telling."
Rachelle Louise & supporters arrives at Darlinghurst court to hear sentencing submission against partner Simon Gittany Who was found guilty of murdering Lisa Harnam Source: News Limited
Prof Mazerolle believed progress was being made in everything from treating people in those situations to support services for victims such as Women's Refuge which was helping prevent the most common form of murders, called intimate partner murders.
The murder of Rachelle Yeo by her former partner Paul Mulvihill, whose confession and explanation for his crime was shown on 60 Minutes on Sunday, fell into the intimate partner category.
CCTV footage shows Lisa Harnum and Simon Gittany together minutes before her death.
While some murders were carefully planned many were spur of the moment and the direct result of some external pressure and failing to cope with that.
He pointed to the high-profile examples of parents killing their children by throwing them from bridges in Melbourne in 2009 and Brisbane in 2012 showed some "risk factors'' such as a relationship breakdown and possible custody issues.
In 2009 Arthur Freeman threw his 4-year-old daughter Darcey Freeman off Melbourne's West Gate Bridge a day after he'd had the amount of time he could spend with his children reduced.
His sentencing hearing was told he'd phoned his former wife and told her to "say goodbye to your children" and "you will never see your children again" moments before he threw the child off the 58m bridge.
Arthur Freeman was jailed for life after throwing his daughter Darcey off a Melbourne bridge in front of horrified commuters. Source: Supplied
A similar tragedy occurred in Brisbane in 2012 when school teacher Jason Lees leapt from the Story Bridge with his 2-year-old son Brad in a murder-suicide.
Lees was a respected teacher and international sevens rugby referee who was popular with his students but had not been coping after having problems with his wife, and Brad's mother, Danielle.
But his act of filicide - killing your child - stunned his friends and family.
Private school teacher Jason Lees died with his 2 year old son Brad in a murder-suicide in 2012. Source: Supplied
"By all accounts something happened in the moment that resulted in [these] traumatic tragic events."
And earlier this year Australia was shocked by the brutal murder of 11-year-old Luke Batty who was attacked with a cricket bat by his father Greg Anderson, who was shot by police and later died in hospital.
An average of 25 children are killed by their parents each year.
A school picture of Luke Batty who was killed by his father Greg Anderson at cricket training earlier this year. Source: News Corp Australia
There are many myths associated with murderers, including they are born that way and displayed dangerous tendencies early by mistreating animals, for example.
There was "no question" people who went on to kill showed little, or below average, empathy, but to say people were born that way was probably "an overstatement".
"People might be born with certain risk factors but they are shaped by their environment. Some who go onto be mass murder have very low empathy and as kids have done horrific things to animals but doesn't mean they will become serial killer. It does show up, but not with all."
The main method of murder in Australia was stabbing.
"Stabbing is one of the main modus operandi — we don't have same access to handguns, which is a good thing. The difference between aggravated assault and homicide is often a weapon. Given an angry person a weapon and can end with a bad result."
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