The Westfield Bondi Junction knife killer had reportedly investigated the murders and stalked other shopping centers before his stabbing spree.
Joel Cauchi, 40, fatally stabbed six people and injured at least 12 others in a violent shooting in Sydney’s busy shopping center on Saturday afternoon.
The killer’s distraught family have spoken out about his long battle with mental illness and his obsession with knives.
His mother, Michele, said Monday that her son was “obviously not of sound mind.”
“Somehow he had been triggered into a psychosis and had lost touch with reality,” he said.
But it has now emerged that Cauchi’s attack may not have been a spontaneous attack and may have been planned for weeks.
Joel Cauchi (pictured), 40, fatally stabbed six people and injured at least 12 more in a violent shooting at the busy shopping center on Saturday afternoon.
He had reportedly investigated murders and stalked other shopping centers before his stabbing.
Cauchi had been Googling “kill” before the attack.
“Today I learned that investigators were able to download data from his phone, indicating he had a fixation on the murders,” revealed Simon Bouda, crime editor at A Current Affair.
‘He also had a fixation with knives. That tells us it wasn’t a spontaneous attack.
“I used to think about killing, and that’s terribly scary.”
Cauchi had been seen at Westfield shopping centers in Penrith and Parramatta, western Sydney, in recent weeks.
“What was going through your mind?” Mr. Bouda asked.
Cauchi had been spotted at Westfield shopping centers in Penrith (pictured above) and Parramatta (below), western Sydney, in recent weeks.
Westfield Parramatta pictured
‘Were you researching other locations that you had perhaps considered appropriate for what you wanted to do? Was he just visiting? Who knows.’
Bouda also revealed that police hope the Westfield Bondi Junction CCTV footage is never made public because it is too “chilling”.
“It is so horrendous, cold and callous that the police do not want it to be made public,” Mr Bouda said.
Six people, five women and a security guard, died in the Cauchi stabbing, while several others were injured.
On Monday, Cauchi’s parents said he was a diagnosed schizophrenic who had lived at home with them until he was 35 in Toowoomba, southern Queensland.
His life was derailed when he tried to stop his antipsychotic medication because he “wanted to have a life,” but instead it triggered his psychosis, his parents said.
‘How do you love a monster? Give them birth!’ said tearful father Andrew Cauchi.
‘I loved my son. But he had a fascination with knives.
‘I had five or six army commando knives. He had problems with women, he couldn’t get a girlfriend.