| Charles Amon Mihayo | |
| Nationality: | Tanzanian |
| Motive: | Revenge against ex-wife |
| Children: | Savanna and Indianna Mihayo |
| Charge: | Murder |
| Conviction: | Murder |
| Conviction Penalty: | Life imprisonment |
| Conviction Status: | In prison |
| Victims: | Savanna and Indianna Mihayo |
| Locations: | Melbourne |
| Date: | 20 April 2014 |
| Weapon: | Pillow |
Charles Amon Mihayo is a Tanzanian man, permanently residing in Australia,[1] who killed his two daughters in Melbourne on 20 April 2014.
Mihayo was born in Tanzania.[2]
He met a woman in China, moved to Australia, and married her. He became a permanent resident of Australia. The two separated in 2011 with divorce occurring a year later.[3]
The murders were committed in Melbourne's north-eastern suburb of Watsonia, at a property on Longmuir Road just near the Greensborough Secondary College. The house in which the girls were murdered belonged to the girls' maternal great-grandmother, Margaret Mills.
On 19 April 2014, Mihayo sent a text message asking his wife to allow him to see his daughters "one last time."[2] On the following day, which was Easter Sunday,[4] Mihayo bought new clothes for the girls and visited them at the residence of their great-grandmother in Watsonia, Melbourne, Victoria.[2]
He asked his daughters, Savanna and Indianna to wear ballerina dresses and sing "Let It Go" from the 2013 American film Frozen.[5] This was recorded on videotape. He also went to play hide and seek with them.[1] He took them into a bedroom, smothered them with a pillow,[2] and put them back into clothes after bathing them post-mortem. Mihayo confessed to killing the children when police came to arrest him.[6]
Gavin Silbert QC, the chief crown prosecutor, stated that Mihayo was upset since his ex-wife found a new romantic partner. Mihayo pleaded guilty in September 2014.[6] He received a life sentence with a minimum tariff of 31 years.[4]
Cases of filicide attributed to revenge against an ex-spouse: