Google searches of alleged mum killer, court

A detective investigating an alleged mum killer has told a court the man searched for “coroner’s aneurysm causes” and “inquest” in Google after his mother’s death.

Andre Zachary Rebelo is on trial for the murder of Colleen Rebelo who was found dead in the shower of her Bicton home in Perth’s southwest on May 25, 2020.

The WA Supreme Court was told police discovered Mr Rebelo had taken out three life insurance policies against his mother in the week before she died in which he stood to gain $1.15m from her death.

Three days after she died, he started the claims process to gain money from premiums.

One of the insurers suspected the claim was fraudulent and reported it to police.

Mr Rebelo had submitted forged copies of a medical certificate from his mother’s psychologist, her last will and testament along with a fake copy of a coroner’s report into her death.

Mr Rebelo was charged with fraud in October 2020, and was later charged with murder in November 2022.

He declared bankruptcy on March 31, 2022.

Mr Rebelo pleaded guilty to forgery but has denied killing his mother.

Detectives were initially investigating a fraud complaint started suspecting Mr Rebelo murdered his mother about October 1, 2020.

Homicide Squad detective Clinton Bragg said they were briefed about the case on August 31, 2020 and started investigations, but because three months had lapsed since Ms Rebelo had died they were unable to obtain any evidence from CCTV footage.

He told the court 16 days later police searched the home of Ms Rebelo where her children Monique and Fabian were at the time, with police seizing laptops and mobile phones from the home.

He said her children were taken to the Fremantle Police Station to give statements.

The detective told the court a search was also carried out at Andre’s home, which he shared with his former partner Grace Piscopo, on the same day. Police seized computers and laptops and took him in for questioning.

“Andre was interviewed later that evening about this incident, he was taken into custody and arrested that day,” he said.

“I went back to the Homicide Squad office and took Andre back to the watch house, I believe he was bailed.

“He was charged with attempted fraud, five other forgery offences and released on bail.”

Detective sergeant Jason Hutchinson told the court he examined a computer used by Andre and found activity from December 2019 to July 2020 had been removed including internet search history.

He said there was also no Chrome history prior to June 2020.

The detective sergeant told the court he did find Google searches that were relevant to the case which included “coroner’s aneurysm causes”, “word doc assist” and “inquest”.

A computer mostly used by Andre’s former partner model Grace Piscopo revealed photos of the couple with their son Romeo taken at 8.07am on the day Andre’s mother died.

At 10.24am and 2pm photos of Ms Piscopo were found on the computer, post 8.07am there were no photos of Andre.

During the trial, the court has been told Mr Rebelo portrayed a glamorous lifestyle on social media with Ms Piscopo which was funded by credit cards and personal loans.

The jury heard Ms Piscopo was a successful model and social media influencer, but Mr Rebelo had lived beyond his means and was unable to repay his financial obligations.

Ms Piscopo is not accused of any wrongdoing.

WA Police Financial Crime Squad investigator Darren Stammers investigated the couple’s financial records for a three year period until June 2020.

The court was shown about a month after Ms Rebelo died, the couple had a combined debt of $121,000 and little money in their savings accounts.

Andre was being pursued by debt collection agencies after he failed to make repayments on his credit card.

The prosecution has argued he must have thought his world was closing in around him, which led him to take out three life insurance policies against his mother.

State prosecutor Brett Tooker told the court when premiums had to be paid and money started coming out of Andre’s account he had to act.

“Which is why five days later he killed his mother, then three days later started pursing policies.”

While Ms Rebelo’s death was sudden and unexpected it was not treated as suspicious by first responders who attended her home.

Her cause of death has never been determined despite auxiliary testing performed at her autopsy.

The defence has argued traces of focal subendocardial interstitial fibrosis found on Ms Rebelo’s heart could have caused her to die suddenly from cardiac arrhythmia.

The trial continues.

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