ThatsLife
  • WIN
  • News
  • Real Life
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Pets
  • Your Stars
  • Puzzles
  • Podcasts
  • Video
ThatsLife
  • WIN
  • News
  • Real Life
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Pets
  • Your Stars
  • Puzzles
  • Podcasts
  • Video
Subscribe
  1. Home
  2. Real Life

He was their daddy… how could he murder them?

Perth mum Anatoria is haunted by the last call she had with her children - by John Parrish
  • 30 Aug 2018
He was their daddy… how could he murder them?

If life had gone as it should have done, August 20 2018 would have marked Lily Headland’s seventh birthday.

As she always did, her mother Anatoria bought her little girl a card.

‘To my darling daughter, Happy Birthday my beautiful princess, Love always, Mum,’ she wrote. She got a chocolate cake too and lit seven candles.

Then, fighting back tears, Anatoria stood in the red dirt of Perth’s Midland Cemetery and sang Happy Birthday to her daughter’s grave – a grave she shares with her little brother Dre.

Supplied

They lie there, side by side, because their lives were brutally taken by the person who should have been their protector.

Their own daddy, Jason.

‘He seemed such a nice guy when we met,’ Anatoria sighs.

‘I thought he was funny and kind. I was a barmaid in Perth and he was a FIFO worker.’

The couple had Lily in August 2011 and Andreas – Dre or DreDre to his mum – in November the following year. Then they married.

‘Lily was clever, bubbly, a chatterbox obsessed with Frozen,’ Anatoria tells New Idea. ‘Dre thought he was Spiderman. Climbed over everything, always on the go. He looked up to his bossy big sister. We all loved to garden together. That was our thing.’

Supplied

Jason wrestled with Dre and watched Frozen on a near continuous loop with Lily.

‘I thought he was a devoted dad,’ Anatoria says. ‘He missed the kids a lot because of work, so I offered to do FIFO for a while to give him a chance of being a stay-at-home dad. Marriage isa partnership, I thought.’

Anatoria got a well-paid cleaning job at a gas plant in Onslow, 1400km north of their Perth home.

‘I called Jason and the kids every night,’ she says. ‘There wasn’t much to do afterwards, so sometimes I went for a drink with my crew.’

When she posted photos of herself and her new friends on Facebook, Jason bombarded her with questions about the men.

‘Over the next few months it became aggressive and then abusive. He was convinced I was up to no good,’ says Anatoria.

‘I stopped going out as much, even offered to swap roles again. Nothing reassured him. Finally, I said we needed time apart. I thought a break might calm him down.’

supplied

But Jason convinced himself Anatoria was going to ‘steal’ the kids, then aged five and three, from him.

On October 20, 2016, it was his turn to have them.

‘He rang that evening and said: “I’m going to break your heart into 50 million pieces.

Say goodbye to your kids. This is the last time you’re going to speak to them,”’ Anatoria remembers. ‘I thought he was going on the run.’

He let her speak to the children. ‘They sounded happy,’ she says. ‘I told them both I loved them, then said: “Bye my darlings.” They replied: “Bye Mummy.” And Jason came back on. ‘So that’s it,’ he said, giggled and hung up. I went to the police.’

Jason dodged officers that night. Then he did something unimaginable. He gave Lily and Dre sleeping tablets and suffocated them while they slept.

Afterwards, Jason made a half-hearted suicide attempt. ‘When the police told me, I didn’t believe them,’ Anatoria says candidly. ‘When it sank

in I started crying and I couldn’t stop.’

Dre was buried in a Spiderman-themed coffin, while little Lily’s casket was decorated with scenes from Frozen.

As the coffins were lowered, side-by-side, Let It Go from Frozen was played.

supplied

‘I wanted to be in that grave with my babies,’ Anatoria says.

Jason admitted to Lily and Dre’s murders, but claimed he had no memory of what he’d done or why. He was jailed for life with a 31-year minimum.

‘I knew why,’ Anatoria asserts. ‘I rejected him, so he killed our children to punish me.’

In the wake of the murders, she craved the touch, feel, smell and sound of her kids. ‘It was a physical ache. I wanted to feel Dre’s sloppy kisses and to hear Lily singing Let It Go,’ she sighs.

Visiting their gravesite became her only solace. ‘They were there. I felt close to them,’ she says. Not much grew in the red dirt around the graves, so Anatoria took plastic flowers to decorate it.

‘That reminded me of the fun we had gardening. Sometimes I took toys they liked or books from the Little Monsters series. I would read to them.’

supplied

Family and friends dropping by left gifts too. ‘I liked seeing other people had visited,’ Anatoria – who later returned to FIFO work in a bid to distract herself – says. ‘I’d been visiting the cemetery twice a week, but I couldn’t when I was working away. I missed being with the kids, seeing who’d visited, what they’d left.’

So, in March last year, she set up Lily & DreDre’s Garden – a Facebook memorial page she built as she searched to find a way to cope with her grief.

‘I could log on and see who’d checked in or tagged themselves, left a toy or made a comment.

I left messages for the kids too, telling them how much I loved them,’ she says.

The site has been a big hit among Anatoria’s friends and family, and she says it will remain a permanent interactive memorial to her children.

‘I’ll never feel their touch or hear their voices again, but at least through their page my babies will never be forgotten.’

 If you need support, help is available from Lifeline on 13 11 14.

This article originally appeared on New Idea.

  • Real Life
  • Crime

Subscribe to That's Life!-+ save!

Subscribe to That's Life!

Subscribe Now
Subscribe to That's Life!

Subscribe to That's Life!-+ save!

Subscribe to That's Life!

Subscribe Now
Subscribe to That's Life!

Recommended to you

There's A Better, Faster Way To Predict Sepsis
Watch 0:37

There's A Better, Faster Way To Predict Sepsis

{headline}

{headline}

Face to face with Australia's MOST NOTORIOUS armed robbers

Face to face with Australia's MOST NOTORIOUS armed robbers

Scarred for life by me evil ex

Scarred for life by me evil ex

Brave mum: 'I escaped from hell for my boys'

Brave mum: 'I escaped from hell for my boys'

She forgave her mum's killer then he murdered her too!

She forgave her mum's killer then he murdered her too!

{headline}

{headline}

Killer hubby kept his first wife in the garage

Killer hubby kept his first wife in the garage

Aussie teen's hell - Evil boyfriend kept her in a cage

Aussie teen's hell - Evil boyfriend kept her in a cage

Strangled over a secret: Killer dumped his pregnant wife's body in the boot

Strangled over a secret: Killer dumped his pregnant wife's body in the boot

{headline}

{headline}

Aussie cold case: Who left Nina to die on her verandah?

Aussie cold case: Who left Nina to die on her verandah?

Husband who crashed car into river, killing his wife, has still not apologised to her family

Husband who crashed car into river, killing his wife, has still not apologised to her family

Dad accused of murdering estranged pregnant wife because 'he did not want the child'

Dad accused of murdering estranged pregnant wife because 'he did not want the child'

Serial killer Ted Bundy's stepdaughter speaks out

Serial killer Ted Bundy's stepdaughter speaks out

Former NSW teacher John Edwards sentenced over murder of estranged wife

Former NSW teacher John Edwards sentenced over murder of estranged wife

Evil step-mum: she kept my dad’s head in her handbag

Evil step-mum: she kept my dad’s head in her handbag

Evil boyfriend killed my girl over a PHOTO

Evil boyfriend killed my girl over a PHOTO

ThatsLife
  • Gold Club
  • Online Entry FAQ
  • About Us
  • Subscribe Today
  • Contact Us
  • Terms
  • Competitions
  • Privacy Policy
ThatsLife Magazine Subscribe
  • Gold Club
  • Online Entry FAQ
  • About Us
  • Subscribe Today
  • Contact Us
  • Terms
  • Competitions
  • Privacy Policy

Brands

  • New Idea
  • Who
  • Girlfriend
  • Practical Parenting

Our Network

  • Better Homes and Gardens
  • BHG Shop
  • marie claire
  • Beauty Crew
  • New Idea food
  • Women's Weekly Food
  • Bounty Parents
  • Home Beautiful
  • All Recipes
  • 7plus
  • 7News
  • Sunrise
  • Starts at 60
  • The West Australian
  • Perth Now
  • 7mate
  • 7Sport
  • Hard to Find
© 2022 Are Media PTY LTD
All products are independently selected, tested or recommended by our team of experts.If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Get more from

Magazine Subscription Offer

Subscribe to That's Life!-+ save!

Shop This Offer
Subscribe to That's Life!