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‘A terrifying game of cat and mouse’: Floreat murderer’s daughter speaks at DV rally
By Hamish Hastie and Heather McNeill
The daughter of Floreat double-murderer Mark Bombara has revealed harrowing details of the final moments of his two victims’ lives as she spoke at a domestic violence rally in Perth on Monday.
Ariel Bombara recalled how she and her mother were engaged in a “terrifying game of cat and mouse” with her father for eight weeks before he turned up to her mother’s best friend’s house in May, and shot Jenny Petelczyc, 59, and her 18-year-old daughter Gretl dead.
Ariel Bombara speaks at a domestic violence rally in Perth on Monday.Credit: Hamish Hastie
“Six months ago my mum and I picked up the keys to our new rental apartment,” Ariel said.
“It was a breath of fresh air and a sigh of intense relief. We’d been on the run for eight weeks and during that time we were gaslit, told we were overreacting, crazy, that our father would never physically hurt us.
“We were stressed, malnourished and living on top of each other at various accommodation.”
Ariel then recalled the phone call her mother received as they unpacked their belongings.
“While unpacking mum received a call from her best friend Jenny, we heard Jenny telling her 18-year-old daughter to go and hide,” she said.
“My father had turned up looking for mum, and he didn’t believe her when she said mum wasn’t there so he forced his way into their home.
“We heard Jenny say, ‘Mark put the gun away’, and I remember the ice-cold shot of adrenaline and the sound that escaped my mouth akin to that of someone whose been kicked in the gut.
“It was the knowledge that after eight weeks of meticulous safety planning, eight weeks of predicting and staying ahead of his behaviour in the most terrifying game of cat and mouse, he was about to do everything we thought he was going to do to us, to somebody else.
Jennifer Petelczyc and daughter Gretl Petelczyc.
“Those are the last words I heard Jenny say as I frantically called triple zero, while mum continued to listen to what was going on in Jenny’s house.
“While speaking to the police, I heard mum scream, and then she was wailing. The last thing mum heard was two gunshots before the phone went dead.”
Speaking ahead of the 16 Days in WA rally at Forrest Chase, Ariel said Jenny’s second daughter was down the road at the shops when she received a text from Gretl telling her to call police. When she arrived home, Bombara fatally shot himself.
She described her father as a “dictator” who physically and emotionally abused her and displayed “constant” coercive and controlling behaviours towards her mother, including isolating her mother and criticising her.
“It’s a heavy burden women carry, blaming themselves for men’s violence, an utterly unfair, twisted weight we feel because the system doesn’t protect us and puts the onus on women to manage men’s behaviour rather than holding perpetrators accountable,” she said.
“We weren’t the ones to pick up that gun, yet we must live the rest of our lives paying for his crimes.”
Ariel said her mother had tried to convince herself the abuse was not that bad because Bombara never hit her.
Mark Bombara.
“He was overtly sexist, racist and homophobic to anyone who didn’t look or act like him,” she said.
“He thought women were less than dog shit, and he made it clear in front of his daughters.
“‘Oh but he’s not a violent man,’ people would tell me.
“It is the ultimate act of abuse, deciding to orphan your children by murdering their mother and killing yourself because she no longer wants to live under your control.”
Ariel then criticised the police response to her and her mother’s attempts to flee Bombara.
“After trying unsuccessfully to convince the police to take any action to protect us against him, back in March, we had to disappear. I knew the only way to make sure he couldn’t kill us was to make sure he couldn’t find us, and he still managed to inflict maximum damage, utter devastation,” she said.
WA Police conducted an internal investigation into Jennifer and Gretl’s death, including their earlier responses to Ariel’s concerns about her father, but it is not yet known whether it will be made public.
Hundreds of people joined the 16 Days in WA march through the city around midday.
Speaking after the event, Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence Minister Sabine Winton spruiked her government’s efforts, including the system reform plan aimed at improving information sharing between agencies; skilling up people working in the sector; and improving risk assessment and risk management.
Ariel said her father’s horrific crimes had filled her with a sense of duty to do everything in her power to prevent a similar scenario from playing out again.
She said she believed in the reform being embarked on by the WA government in the domestic violence space, so long as there was a commitment to adequately fund it.
“I believe that we as a collective have the power to make a real difference, but to do so, we need to believe in victim-survivors and their right to be heard and supported,” she said.
“I fought for eight weeks against every person that tried to convince us we were overreacting, the police who dismissed us, the people who said, ‘Oh, but he doesn’t rape you or hit you, so it can’t be that bad’.
“All I can ask is, do you believe me now?”
If you or anyone you know needs help, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 (and see lifeline.org.au), 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732), the National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service on 1800 211 028 or Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800.