On social media, the Tumalian family projected a beautiful image of the immigrant dream realized in Melbourne, Australia. Jessie, a former marine engineer, and his wife Jorina “Tuts,” a former software engineer, were raising four beautiful children, their profiles filled with happy get-togethers and family outings.

Tuts, in particular, was a rising star in the local Filipino community, a successful online entrepreneur who had built her business, “Belezima,” from the ground up. But behind this curated facade of success and happiness was a dark and violent secret that would explode into a horrific public tragedy on the morning of March 27, 2024.

The couple’s journey began in the Philippines, where they met, fell in love, and married. With Jessie’s promising career as a marine engineer, they moved to Australia to build a better life for their growing family. For a time, their dream was a reality.

However, the pressures of life abroad began to take their toll. Jessie lost his job and, according to friends and family, spiraled into a world of alcohol and drug abuse.

As her husband’s life unraveled, Tuts, a devoted mother, rose to the challenge. She became the family’s sole breadwinner, taking on a full-time job while simultaneously launching her own online business from their garage.

Her resourcefulness and hard work paid off; her shop became a success, and she was featured in local Filipino publications and invited to business expos. She was, by all accounts, a supermom, doing whatever it took to provide for her four children.

But her success at home was overshadowed by a growing terror. Jessie’s addictions allegedly fueled a violent and abusive nature. The man she had married had become her tormentor. The situation grew so dire that Tuts, fearing for her life and the safety of her children, took the brave and necessary step of seeking legal protection.

She reported the abuse to the authorities, and a court granted her a full-time Intervention Order (IVO), legally separating them and forbidding Jessie from contacting her or coming near the family home.

The system, however, failed to protect her. Jessie blatantly violated the restraining order, a fact noted by neighbors. He was eventually arrested for the violation and jailed for three months, but the short sentence did little to curb his rage.

The situation became so alarming that even Jessie’s own parents in the Philippines, terrified of their son’s escalating and drug-fueled volatility, contacted the Philippine consulate in Melbourne, desperately begging them to intervene and get him into a rehabilitation program. Their pleas for help went unanswered.

On the morning of March 27, Tuts performed her daily, loving ritual of walking her four children to the nearby Bethany Catholic Primary School. After kissing them goodbye, she began the short walk home. Jessie was lying in wait for her. In front of their house, he attacked her. Several neighbors heard her desperate, piercing screams but, in a tragic failure of community response, no one called Triple Zero, Australia’s emergency number.

Minutes after the screams stopped, a call was finally placed to the authorities. The caller was Jessie Tumalian himself. In a chillingly calm confession, he informed the operator that he had just killed his wife. Paramedics rushed to the scene, but it was too late. Tuts was found in front of her home and was declared dead at the scene.

Jessie was arrested and charged with murder. The motive appears to be a classic and tragic case of possessive rage—an abuser, stripped of his power by a court order, making the fatal decision that “If I can’t have you, no one will.” The story of Tuts Tumalian is a devastating and infuriating tragedy.

It is the story of a courageous and resilient mother who did everything she was supposed to do to escape a violent relationship, only to be failed by the system that was meant to protect her, leaving four innocent children as the ultimate victims of their father’s monstrous act.