- Husband murdered his wife in Melbourne
- He hit her with a metal car ramp
A murderer who waited for his wife to reach their garage before killing her with a metal car ramp will spend more than two decades behind bars.
Joe Lo Bianco appeared in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Thursday and was sentenced to 24 years in prison with a non-parole period of 18 years and six months.
His wife Kaliopi Roumeliotis had just gotten out of their car at their home in inner Melbourne on November 30, 2022, when Lo Bianco repeatedly hit her in the head and neck with the ramp.
He left her body on the garage floor, placing the murder weapon under her head to simulate an accidental death, before removing and hiding her bloody clothing.
Lo Bianco went next door to chat with his in-laws for almost an hour while he waited for his daughter to be dropped off after a friend’s birthday party.
When the girl arrived, she asked for her mother and suggested she might be in the garage.
Lo Bianco then told his daughter to go inside and see if he was there.
The young woman, named in court under the pseudonym Sally, found her mother’s body with blood covering the floor, the car and the walls.
Joe Lo Bianco appeared in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Thursday and was sentenced to 24 years in prison with a non-parole period of 18 years and six months.
Sally ran next door, calling for help from her uncles, who came and began performing CPR while Lo Bianco called triple zero.
Paramedics confirmed that Roumeliotis was already dead.
Judge Amanda Fox told the court that no sentence she imposed could compensate for Ms Roumeliotis’ “priceless” life.
“She is missed dearly by everyone who loved her,” he said.
Judge Fox said taking his daughter to the site of her mother’s body was a “deeply aggravating aspect of his offending”.
He also noted that Lo Bianco’s refusal to receive the Covid-19 vaccine had caused “tensions and arguments” over finances in the time before the murder.
Days before her death, Roumeliotis told a friend that she was “frustrated” and had “reached saturation point.”
Lo Bianco, who has been detained since 2022, initially told police that his wife must have tripped and fallen, claiming that he had no involvement in her death because he was in the backyard cleaning a rabbit enclosure.
The 53-year-old later admitted what happened and pleaded guilty to murder at the Supreme Court in September.
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