A male magistrate was overcome with emotion as he closed the inquest into the mysterious fatal stabbing of an Indian mum in a Sydney park.
NSW Deputy State Coroner Magistrate David O’Neil found Prabha Kumar, 41, died from multiple stab wounds to the neck by a person or persons unknown on March 7, 2015 at Parramatta in Sydney’s west.
He formally recommended the matter be referred to the unsolved homicide squad for further investigation.
His voice cracked as he thanked the murdered woman’s family members, which included Ms Kumar’s daughter Meghana, 21, who was watching from India, and the victim’s sister and niece, Shubha and Aranya, who were in court.
The coroner said that it was the ‘heartfelt wish’ of Ms Kumar’s family ‘that the perpetrator or perpetrators are brought to justice’.
He said that of all the possible explanations for the murder – including a possible sex attack, racial assault or robbery – police consider it was most likely a targeted killing.
Analysis of her clothing and bag discovered a mixed DNA profile – including hers and that of a male – on the front zip area of her backpack.
The sample, named Profile D, did not match any on the national criminal investigation database.
Following the inquest’s conclusion, Homicide Squad Commander Detective Superintendent Joe Doueihi re-appealed for information about the murder.
NSW Police have now offered a $1million reward for any new leads that result in the arrest and conviction of her killer.
The inquest heard a suspicious person ‘dressed all in black’ was seen both before and after the deadly attack, and was captured on CCTV footage that was played at the inquest on Monday.
The coroner was told Ms Kumar’s husband, Arun Kumar, had been having an affair, had just renewed his wife’s life insurance, and changed the PIN on her bank account an hour before her stabbing.
Two days after the murder, as Mr Kumar flew to after deleting messages between himself and his lover in India, she texted him, saying: ‘Idiot, you’ve got to be strong.
‘Do you need me to come?’
At the time of her murder, Ms Kumar was on a long phone call to her husband in India.
He has since given three different versions to police of what he heard during the call.
The inquest was told detectives are still investigating whether Mr Kumar could have organised the hit on his wife.
Ms Kumar’s only child, daughter Megahana, 21, watched the two-day inquest by audio video link from India on Monday as it was shown video of her mother’s final moments.
Counsel Assisting the inquest Jillian Caldwell said Ms Kumar was clearly ‘relaxed’ while on the phone to Arun until she was attacked without warning.
As she commuted home by train from her IT job at an office in Rhodes to Parramatta via Strathfield, she looked ‘unconcerned’ as she crossed the street.
However, the CCTV footage cuts out just as the 41-year-old was walking past Evolve Housing on Argyle Street at 9.17pm on March 7, 2015.
‘This is the last image of Prabha,’ Ms Caldwell said.
‘(She) is talking on her phone to Arun. There is no-one behind her. She’s not concerned about her whereabouts.’
The footage was captured 130m from where she was stabbed, which was only 300m from her Westmead home.
Mr Kumar’s account of what happened next varies in differing statements he gave police.
Initially, he said he could not hear another person, but later said he could clearly hear the voice of his wife’s attacker.
After arriving in , Mr Kumar told police on March 9, 2015, that his wife had told him in the moments before the attack that ‘a guy completely covered in black … suddenly passed me’.
He said she had cried out, ‘Please do not do anything to me … I will give, I will give’, before she screamed loudly when she was stabbed.
In that interview, Mr Kumar said he didn’t hear anything else.
But in November that year, he said that after pleading with her attacker not to hurt her, she then cried out after being attacked, ‘You have stabbed me, no-one is around’.
In February 2016, he told detectives he could hear someone in the background making demands of her.
One of Ms Kumar’s flatmates, Sarada, also gave a different account of what her husband told her had happened.
On the evening of the attack, Sarada, who had never previously spoken with Mr Kumar, had eight missed calls from him.
He told her: ‘Sarada, Sarada, I’m Prabha’s husband. It looks like Prabha is in danger, can you go to the park?’
When Sarada ran straight to the park and saw police and an ambulance, she called Mr Kumar back and asked how he knew his wife was in danger.
She said Mr Kumar told her his wife ‘saw a guy in black and told him, ‘Don’t do anything to me. I’ll give you anything I have’ and had then said, ‘He stabbed me’.
A passer-by found Ms Kumar facedown and bleeding profusely on the footpath.
One man, then a student, recalled hearing two screams and went to investigate.
He heard ‘screaming, loud, intense, it sounded like someone being attacked’ and then ‘heard a second scream, louder, more of a crying scream,’ Ms Caldwell said.
Police and an ambulance initially couldn’t find Ms Kumar, but when she was located, her heart was beating and she had a pulse.
Paramedics rushed her to Westmead Hospital, applying ventilation and adrenaline en route.
By 11pm, three cardiac specialists were operating on her wounds to stem the blood flow.
But by 12.15am, Ms Kumar started to deteriorate and her blood pressure dropped. She died half an hour later.
NSW Police told the inquest Mr Kumar remains one of several persons of interest.
While the investigation into the murder remains live, there has been a recommendation it be referred to the Homicide Cold Case Unit.