‘Like chasing a ghost’: Family had fled house where toddler’s body found, owing thousands in rent

2 months ago 17

The family living in a house in Melbourne’s outer north-west where a toddler’s body was found in a shallow grave left the property extensively damaged and disappeared owing thousands of dollars in unpaid rent.

The landlord of the house, who did not want to be identified for privacy reasons, said the couple who had rented the house for several months between 2013 and 2014 with their young children had told a real estate agent before they moved in that they were both doctors from Eastern Europe.

Massimiliano Balbiani at his home in Saltbush Crescent, Brookfield, where the remains of a toddler were found this week.

The owners of the house, who purchased it as an investment property, said they had found it strange at the time that no reference checks had been done on the couple before they moved in.

On Wednesday, police confirmed investigators had found what appeared to be remains of an 18-month-old boy during a search of the backyard of the brown-brick house in Brookfield.

The boy is believed to have gone missing in 2014, but his disappearance was not reported to police at the time.

The owner of the home, who purchased the block of land in 2011, said the inside of the house had been left trashed with damage to the walls and a door. The family is believed to have fled to Eastern Europe.

“They did the bolt on us,” he said. “I think they owed us about eight weeks’ rent. It was like chasing a ghost.”

Forklift driver Massimiliano Balbiani told The Age he was at work early on Monday morning when he suddenly got a call from a police officer who told him they suspected there was a human body buried in his backyard.

For hours, investigators scoured the backyard using specialised ground-penetrating machines before focusing their attention on digging up a section of the lawn next to a concrete slab at the back door.

About 1.30pm, underneath a small patch of dry grass, next to an old trampoline and only metres from the house, police discovered a shallow grave, concealing the remains of an 18-month-old-boy, buried there for 11 years.

“I was horrified,” Balbiani said on Thursday as he stood next the freshly disturbed earth where the child’s remains were found.

“I have lived in this place for eight years. My children have played outside in this yard many times. I don’t know what to think. It is very, very sad.

“Something bad has happened here. It is an awful and shocking thing.”

He said the body had been buried in dirt less than 50 centimetres deep.

The patch of land where the toddler’s body was found.

The owner of the house said the real estate agency had tried to recoup some of his lost money and damages through the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in 2015, but to no avail.

He said he went to the four-bedroom house in Saltbush Crescent only once in 2014 to change batteries in a smoke alarm, and met the couple and their three children briefly.

He described the father as being well-dressed in slacks and shirt, but he said he got the sense something was untoward.

“He looked like he could work in a doctor’s surgery or somewhere professional like that,” the owner said.

“But they seemed a bit strange. Something just didn’t add up. I felt like he was dodgy. It is all a bit of a blur now.

“I just hope Australia have got a bit of power with extradition laws they can find the people involved and then get them back into Australia.”

He said he and his wife had been left deeply distressed by news of the toddler’s body on his property.

“The whole thing’s just been a whirlwind,” he said. “My wife was shaking when she told me. We just can’t believe it.”

In a statement, police said the missing persons squad had assumed primacy of the investigation, and it remained ongoing.

None of the neighbours to whom The Age spoke have lived in the street long enough to know the identity of the family who lived there when the toddler’s body was buried, but expressed their horror at the grim discovery.

The Age tried to contact Barry Plant, the real estate agent overseeing the property at the time the child disappeared in 2014, but the agency declined to comment due to the ongoing police investigation.