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Police have charged a homeless man with an alleged double murder after a pregnant woman and her partner were found dead in Melbourne with the father-to-be’s head cut off and put on a spike.
Athena Georgopoulos, 39, was allegedly killed alongside her partner Andrew Gunn, 50, at their Mount Waverley home, in Melbourne’s south-east, just before 10pm on Monday night in what police believe was a targeted attack.
Police received a call at 9.20pm after a neighbour heard yelling coming from the property, before a second call was made, with heavily armed police swarming the Adrienne Crescent home at 9.55pm.
Inside the small unit, officers allegedly found Mr Gunn’s mutilated body next to the body of Ms Georgopoulos. The pair have yet to be formally identified.
A 34-year-old homeless man with two large dogs was arrested just hours later at nearby Westall Railway Station, about 6km from the crime scene, at around 1.40am on Tuesday. He has since been charged with two counts of murder.
He will appear in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
Police allege the accused was known to the couple, and that one of the victims lived in the unit.
Ms Georgopoulos was five months pregnant when she died, with her aunt Patty Dilveridis saying her niece was over the moon about becoming a mother.
‘She was so looking forward to having a baby, because she was 39 [and] she never thought she could have one,’ Ms Dilveridis told the Herald Sun.
She had spoken to Ms Georgopoulos two nights earlier and said that she seemed ‘very happy’.
Ms Georgopoulos had also been the primary carer of her mother Petty, who had only recently met Mr Gunn’s parents after learning her daughter was pregnant.
The soon-to-be mother had worked as a customer service representative for several electricity and insurance companies.
Police are still working to establish the accused man’s connection to the alleged victims and the alleged motive.
Post-mortems will be conducted on Wednesday.
Detectives said they are not seeking anyone else in relation to the killings and confirmed a weapon, although not a firearm, was used in the alleged murder.
The street remains cordoned off as homicide detectives comb the scene for evidence.
Investigators are also examining whether graffiti scrawled outside the property, including the phrases ‘U R Gay,’ ‘Enough is Enough,’ ‘Betrayal,’ and ‘Karma’ – is linked to the horror inside.
The messages were sprayed in luminous yellow-green and black paint on the home’s fence and exterior walls.
Detective Inspector Dean Thomas from the Homicide Squad said police received several calls regarding the incident at the address prior to the grim discovery.
‘Police were called at about 9.20pm in relation to a welfare check at the address based on some yelling that was heard from the property,’ he said.
‘A second call was then made that suggested it was perhaps more urgent than the first call and police arrived minutes later, and obviously they found the male and female inside the premises deceased.’
Det Insp Thomas said forensic crews and investigators would be at the scene for most of the day, and counselling was being offered to those living in neighbouring units.
One neighbour said he did not know the people at the house and had never heard of any trouble or police attending the unit prior to last night.
‘It’s a quiet area,’ the man said.
A Victoria Police spokesperson confirmed investigators were probing the graffiti.
‘Police are aware of graffiti on the property in Mount Waverley where the bodies of two people were located last night,’ the spokesperson said.
‘Homicide Squad detectives will work to determine if the graffiti is relevant to the murder investigation.’
Det Insp Thomas said heavily armed specialist officers, assisted by the police helicopter, tracked the arrested man to the station, where he was taken into custody.
‘The person that we took into custody was in the company of two large dogs, I think that would look fairly obvious to people who may have been in the area,’ he added.
