On an overcast day in May 2024, Perth man Mark Bombara walked into the home of his wife’s best friend, Jennifer Petelczyc, and her teenage daughter Gretl.
Bombara was looking for his wife and daughter. He didn’t find them. Instead, he shot both Jennifer and Gretl dead, before turning the gun on himself.
This crime took place in one of Perth’s most affluent suburbs, Floreat, and made headlines around the country, dominating the West Australian news cycle for months.
“How could this happen in Floreat?” was the cry around town.
The reason this could happen anywhere— including in Floreat—was revealed on 31 January 2025 when an internal investigation into the murders revealed significant failings on the part of police officers.
In the lead up to Bombara’s devastating attack, Ariel Bombara—the killer’s daughter—and her mother repeatedly and frantically tried to warn police that they were in imminent danger and that Mark Bombara had access to guns. If he found them, they warned, he would kill them. They could not have been more explicit.
What happened in Floreat that day in May tells you everything you need to know about how seriously this threat was taken.
According to WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch, who recently had to front the press with the investigation’s findings, eight police officers “did not correctly assess the risk, therefore the available powers under the Restraining Orders Act and Firearms Act were not exercised appropriately.”
They were literally handed a pile of red flags and did nothing with them.
Delivering a blistering address to WA Police in the wake of the investigation findings, Ariel Bombara asked a pointed question: “So did you not believe us, or did you just not give a shit?
“The sad reality is that, had my father come to the correct location and murdered my mum and me, we would have become just another domestic violence statistic that disappears with little further investigation,” she said.
She’s probably right.
Family and domestic violence (FDV) is at crisis point in Western Australia, although finding up-to-date data about the true extent of that crisis is not easy. According to the Department of Communities, the number of FDV incidents that WA Police attended increased from 55,926 in 2021-22 to 58,994 in 2022-23. That’s about 160 incidents per day.
The WA Police Force’s annual crime statistics report for the 2022-23 year showed that the number of assault victims increased by 11 per cent that year to 42,826 – the highest number in 31 years. Sixty-four per cent of assaults were FDV-related (27,237 victims) and 28 per cent of all sexual assaults were FDV-related.
The latest Women’s Report Card published by the Department of Communities found that Western Australia had the highest rate of reported FDV-related assault offences against women across all the Australian states.
So, if police wilfully or recklessly ignored the warnings of two well-educated, articulate women living in Perth’s well-to-do western suburbs, consider what hope women in low socio-economic communities—who are more likely to be isolated, perhaps less well-educated, and without the financial means to seek help—must have of being listened to and taken seriously.
And we know that women living in regional Western Australia face even more difficulties. In some of the state’s more remote communities, those women who do pursue FDV matters in court are faced with the brutal reality of court infrastructure that is not fit for purpose, meaning they will likely come face-to-face with their alleged abuser both inside and outside the courtroom.
In many of our regional court buildings, there are no meeting rooms in which a survivor can meet privately with their lawyer. There are no separate waiting rooms. In some locations there are not even bathrooms or access to drinking water, leaving victims to go in search of these services while waiting for their hearing. For some, this lack of a safe court environment is so terrifying that they abandon their case altogether.
For our First Nations women, the situation is even more dire. Aboriginal women are 32 times more likely to be hospitalised because of violence than non-Aboriginal women. In 2023, the WA Ombudsman found that 77 per cent of Aboriginal victims of FDV over the past decade lived in a regional or remote part of Western Australia. Thirty-six per cent of these victims lived in the Kimberley region.
I despair at the barriers these women must encounter. The truth is that the experience of Ariel Bombara and her mother – and their pleas for help that fell on deaf ears – will continue until there is meaningful, systemic change. It is undoubtedly happening to many more women. We just don’t hear their stories because they don’t live in Floreat.
What we do see, though, is a frustratingly high number of victims whose fate mirrors that of Jennifer and Gretl Petelczyc.
As the next state election looms on 8 March, the Law Society of Western Australia has been raising its voice on FDV and many other critical justice issues. In response to our advocacy, most major parties have committed resources to tackling the problem.
And just as well, because Western Australia must do better. The government—whoever is successful—must act urgently to address the escalating FDV crisis. Police must be trained in the warning signs and be supported to address known risks before they are allowed to escalate. Basic court infrastructure must be improved. And, above all, women must be heard – wherever they live.
Feature image: Kate Wellington, CEO of the Law Society of Western Australia.
If you or someone you know is experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, domestic, family or sexual violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, text 0458 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au for online chat and video call services.