A single mother-of-two was forced to move in with her alleged killer when she refused to pay a rent increase and her garage caught fire when an electric bike exploded, as neighbors revealed details of her troubled life.
Annette Kiss, 53, was allegedly stabbed to death by her new housemate Benjamin Art, 42, at their shared home in Russell Lea, west of Sydney, on Thursday.
Ms Kiss had only moved in with two other people five weeks ago, before Art moved into the shed at the front of the property just two weeks before the alleged murder.
Daily Mail Australia can now reveal Ms Kiss had faced a series of shocking incidents at her former rental home in Strathfield.
Neighbors claim she was beaten and hospitalized, cars were periodically bombed, screams could be heard from inside, and police frequently visited the address.
A neighbor said he thought he heard someone being raped inside the home, but that the situation did not involve Kiss.
In May, she was forced to vacate her $760-a-week property because she contested a rent increase and failed to pay rent for 57 days until she owed her landlord $6,188.
The property was put back on the market Thursday for $850 a week, but with a $50 discount because of the burned shed.
Annette Kiss, 55, was allegedly murdered by her new housemate on Thursday morning.
Benjamin Art (pictured) is accused of stabbing Annette Kiss to death with a sword.
Pictured: the house where Annette Kiss was allegedly murdered. Neighbors said that Benjamin Art lived in the shed and that Mrs. Kiss used the fire drum in the shed to burn things.
A neighbor said the house was “trashed” when she left the property and that Kiss had been a hoarder who left the driveway “full of trash.”
“There were always a lot of suspicious-looking people living there,” they said. “You never knew who was coming in or out.”
“The police always came and she refused to let them in.”
They said Ms Kiss was brutally beaten about six weeks ago, but initially refused to go to hospital, until she finally relented and was admitted for four days.
When he finally left the property, the kitchen stove and roof tiles were missing.
“It took them weeks to clean up the mess she made and left for them,” they said.
“She wasn’t a bad person, but we were relieved to see her go.”
New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal documents obtained by Daily Mail Australia show Ms Kiss and her former landlord, Jung Won Yoon, have gone to court over unpaid rent.
Pictured: The burnt out shed at Mrs Kiss’s former rental in Strathfield. Moved due to rent increase.
The shed burned down when an electric bike caught fire. He also had $6,188 in rent arrears.
According to the documents, he “frequently failed to pay rent and water bills” and ran up massive debts.
She did not attend the hearing and, in her absence, was ordered to pay her landlord $108.57 per day beginning the day after the lease ended on May 15.
The NCAT documents did not mention the e-bike fire.
Neighbors at her new home in Russell Lea said Ms Kiss would stay outside the house and burn items in a fire drum after 8 p.m.
“Our house would be filled with smoke,” said one neighbor.
“I asked her to stop burning and offered her our containers and she got a little mean in an ‘I can do whatever I want’ kind of attitude.”
‘She was with some nasty characters, so I backed away a little bit and she continued burning things, and I’m talking huge flames every night for the last three weeks.’
The morning Ms. Kiss died, Art allegedly ran into the house brandishing two knives, a sword and a butcher knife.
Pictured: A former flatmate outside the crime scene on Friday morning.
Police swarmed the crime scene in Russell Lea on Thursday and Friday.
He allegedly shouted at his four housemates to sit down and began showing Ms Kiss text messages from an unknown sender on his phone.
“You’re trying to set me up. Who do you have to try to kill me? Who is the girl texting me?” he yelled, police allege in court documents.
“You’re trying to set me up or get me killed, now you’re trying to kill me.”
Art allegedly held Ms Kiss by the neck before grabbing the knife, while another housemate attempted to stop the alleged attack with a chair before fleeing and calling police.
Detectives later said it was one of the worst crime scenes they had ever encountered.
Another neighbor said the surviving housemates are “too traumatized” to return to the house and pick up their things.
Art was represented by lawyer Javid Faiz at Parramatta Bail Court on Friday. He did not apply for bail but was formally refused bail.
His matter will return to Burwood Local Court on August 22.
