Sef Gonzales

Sef Gonzales (born 16 September 1980) is a Filipino Australian man who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the July 2001 murders of his father Teodoro "Teddy" Gonzales (46), his mother Mary Loiva Gonzales (43), and his sister Clodine Gonzales (18), in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

As a result of notoriety surrounding the sale of the house where the crimes occurred, the New South Wales government made it illegal to not disclose information related to the history of a property.

Sef Gonzales was born in 1980 in Baguio, Benguet, Philippines, to Teddy Gonzales, a lawyer, and his wife Loiva Claridades, who had married in 1977.

In 1983, Sef's sister Clodine was born.

After the 1990 Luzon earthquake destroyed the family's home and business, a newly built 40-room hotel (from the rubble of which Gonzales was rescued by his father), the family emigrated to Australia.

The family settled in Sydney, New South Wales, and by the late 1990s, Teddy had requalified as a lawyer, set up a successful law firm specialising in immigration, and purchased a plot of land in North Ryde.

The Gonzales family appeared to be close-knit: the parents, however, were devout Catholics who had high hopes and strict expectations for their children.

In particular, they had hoped their son would perform well academically, give up his musical and singing aspirations, and embark on a career in medicine or law.

After attending Parramatta Marist High School, Gonzales studied medical science at the University of New South Wales but withdrew after two years.

He then enrolled in law at Macquarie University.

Performing poorly in his courses and at risk of expulsion, Gonzales tried to cover up his failure by falsifying his grades.

When this was revealed by his sister to his parents, they threatened to withdraw certain privileges such as the use of his prized car, a green Ford Festiva.

Gonzales also argued with his mother over a girlfriend of whom she disapproved, and his family threatened to disinherit him.

This, along with Gonzales' desire to inherit the family's assets, were later established by police as motives for killing his family.

On 10 July 2001, at about 4:00p.m., Gonzales left the family's law firm, where he worked part-time, and headed to the family home.

Around 4:30p.m., armed with a baseball bat from his car and two kitchen knives from a knife block in the kitchen, he entered Clodine's bedroom and assaulted her while she was studying.

There he compressed her neck while trying to strangle her, struck her head with the bat at least six times, and then stabbed her multiple times with the smaller of the knives.

The cause of Clodine's death was a combination of the compression of her neck, blunt force head injuries, and abdominal stab wounds.

Gonzales then waited until Loiva arrived home about 5:30p.m. After entering the house, he attacked her with one of the kitchen knives in the living/dining room, inflicting multiple stab wounds and cuts to her face, neck, chest and abdomen.

Her windpipe was then completely transected post-mortem.

At around 6:00p.m., Gonzales' maternal aunt visited the house.

She noted her nephew's and sister's cars in the driveway, but the house was dark and unusually quiet (especially given that the family kept six small dogs inside).

Looking into the house, she noticed movement, and left with her son after deciding not to enter via the garage.

Teddy then arrived home about 6:50p.m. After entering the house, Gonzales attacked him with one of the kitchen knives and inflicted multiple stab wounds to his neck, chest, back and abdomen.

One of the stab wounds penetrated his right lung, another penetrated his heart and another partially severed his spinal cord.

Teddy sustained defensive wounds, suggesting that there was a struggle.

After killing his family, Gonzales disposed of the murder weapons and the clothing and the size7 running shoes he was wearing at the time of the murders.

He showered, changed clothes, and spray painted the words "Fuck off Asians" on a wall in the house in an attempt to fool investigating police into believing that his family had been the victims of a hate crime.

Gonzales then drove to a friend's house, arriving there about 8:00p.m. The two then went to the Sydney central business district, where they ate at Planet Hollywood and visited a nearby video game arcade.

Later in the evening, after dropping his friend off, Gonzales returned home.

He called emergency services at 11:48p.m. to say he had discovered the bodies.

Gonzales had also frantically run to his neighbours' house and told them that his parents had been shot.

In the days following the murders, Gonzales appeared on television asking for the killers to come forward, saying he wanted justice and offering a reward of A$100,000.

A few days after the murder, Gonzales visited the family's accountant, enquiring about his inheritance (estimated at A$1.5 million in Australia and ₱1.3 million in The Philippines).

As an apparent victim of crime, he was also eligible for a A$15,000 payout.

Gonzales then moved to an apartment in Chatswood and put a deposit on a A$173,000 Lexus, telling the dealership he would be using his inheritance to pay for the vehicle.

It was also claimed at trial that he traded in his parents' cars and pawned his mother's jewellery.

Gonzales also told relatives that he had a brain tumour and asked his godmother in the Philippines for A$190,000 for the alleged surgery, but she did not give him any money.

On 20 July, at the combined family funeral, he gave the eulogy and sang "One Sweet Day", which some attendees found odd.

Based on the initial evidence, NSW Police investigators assumed that the murders were part of a robbery attempt.