- Shaun’s little sister, Nikkita, was expected at a family BBQ but she never showed
- Her family hadn’t heard from her in hours when they grew concerned
- The next day Shaun felt a gnawing intuition that something bad may have happened to Nikkita
- When he finally reached her, he discovered Nikkita was killed by someone she trusted for years
Here Shaun Azzopardi, 41, Burnside, Vic, tells his story in his own words.
Blowing up balloons for my son Jordan’s 15th birthday, my stepsister Nikkita, then 35, smiled sweetly.
It was October 2024, and with five years between us, Nikkita and I had always been close.
She came into our lives when she was two years old after my dad, Edward, married my stepmum, Mary.
Nikkita and I often chatted about life and relationships. But lately when I asked her about her dating life, she’d change the subject.
‘So are you and Joel together now?’ I nudged Nikkita, referring to her friend and online business partner.
To my suprise, Joel had come along to Jordan’s birthday party, but was withdrawn, hardly interacting with anyone.
I found him a bit odd, but I remained polite.
I’d met him a handful of times over the years, but when she’d brought him to my 40th birthday in March that year, our family suspected there was more between them.
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Normally bubbly Nikkita dodged my questions.
‘Let’s talk another time, Shaun. I love you,’ she hugged me now, before heading home.
A week later, our family gathered for a barbecue at Dad and Mary’s, but worryingly, Nikkita didn’t show. We called to check on her, but we kept getting her voicemail.
When we still hadn’t heard back by 10pm, Dad and Mary called Nikkita’s roommate to ask if she was home.
To their surprise, they discovered Nikkita had moved out eight months earlier to live with Joel.
In shock, my parents drove to Joel’s in South Morang, Vic, but no-one answered the door.
By morning, there was still no response.
‘Something isn’t right,’ I told my wife Shirlyn, as a sick feeling formed in the pit of my stomach.
It was so out of character for her.
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Calling Dad, Mary and my brother Darren, then 41, we all went back to Joel’s house.
The place looked the same as it had the night before. Blinds drawn, and dead silent.
Certain something terrible had happened, Dad and Mary pounded on the front door, but again, no-one answered.
Out of desperation, Darren jumped over the side gate and smashed the glass sliding door, wanting to get to our sister. Dad, Shirlyn and I followed him in, while Mary waited outside.
Joel appeared and asked, ‘What are you guys doing here?’ – seemingly oblivious to our desperate attempts to get in touch with them.
‘Where is she?’ we demanded.
‘The place looked the same as it had the night before. Blinds drawn, and dead silent.’
‘She’s sleeping,’ he replied, emotionless.
Dad, Darren and Shirlyn bolted up the stairs to find Nikkita, while I looked around the house.
I was the last to go up.
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When I saw my sister’s motionless body on the bedroom floor, I let out a blood-curdling scream.
Her head was covered in so many deep cuts, I could hardly breathe at the sight.
Not my baby sister…
Something inside me broke. Seeing red, I rushed down to confront Joel who ran out to the street.
‘What did you do?’ Darren screamed.
Just then an off-duty police officer spotted us and detained Joel after we told him what’d happened. Shortly afterwards, police and paramedics arrived.
Mary was waiting for us outside and, when we told her what had happened to our beloved Nikkita, she fell to her knees wailing.
The heartbreak was unfathomable.
Nikkita had been bludgeoned to death with an iron fire stoker causing severe blunt force injuries to her head, neck, face, torso and hand.
‘Hundreds of people gathered to farewell Nikkita at her funeral.’
Police confirmed that Nikkita had been secretly dating Joel, 33, on and off since 2020.
They also revealed that Joel had three separate stays in mental health facilities in recent years, where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Nikkita had supported him, attending appointments by his side.
She always saw the best in everyone.
How could I not have known? I thought.
Joel Micallef was charged with my beautiful sister’s murder.
Two weeks later, hundreds of people gathered to farewell Nikkita at her funeral.
If I’d known the last time I’d see my sister was at my son’s birthday, I would have hugged her a little tighter and begged her to tell me what was troubling her.
In December 2025, my whole family attended the Supreme Court of Victoria.
‘ Joel Micallef was charged with my beautiful sister’s murder.’
While Joel Micallef, 34, admitted to killing Nikkita, both the prosecution and defence said he should be found not guilty of her murder because of mental impairment at the time he killed her.
During the trial, we heard from two forensic psychiatrists who believed Joel was acutely psychotic, and experiencing paranoid delusions that Nikkita had been replaced by a demon.
In the days leading up to her death, Joel also called Triple-0 and went to the police station twice, where officers reported him presenting as ‘paranoid and detailing concerns about people of Indian appearance’.
Joel’s delusions were so extreme he believed my sister was trying kill him.
Heart-breakingly, just hours before her death, Nikkita had spoken to Joel’s father on the phone.
‘Joel wouldn’t do anything to hurt me,’ Nikkita said, adamantly. ‘He is a gentle person.’
In handing down her judgment, Justice Amanda Fox said there was ‘no question’ that Joel had ‘intended to kill and cause [Nikkita] serious injury’, causing her death, but that she was satisfied he was ‘seriously psychiatrically unwell’ when he attacked her.
Joel, who’d remained in custody, was placed on a supervision order, to be transferred to a mental health hospital at a later date.
The verdict was like a punch to the gut.
But I’ll keep fighting for justice for Nikkita and other women. We’re now hoping to push Victoria to change laws in line with other states, for people to be held accountable for their crimes despite mental impairment.
We cannot let another innocent soul be taken away.
Not a day goes by that I don’t think of our sweet sister. Nikkita will forever be in my heart.
On the morning of March 22, Joel Micallef’s body was discovered in his single cell at the Metropolitan Remand Centre (MRC) where he was waiting to be transferred to the Thomas Embling secure mental health facility.
