JASMINE THOMAS CASE
Australian mother Jasmine Thomas killed herself and her two daughters Carolyn and Evlyn in a car fire on March 4, 2022.
A coronial inquest took place recently, and Jasmine’s husband James Swan Palakamannil gave evidence then.
Jasmine and James had met on an arranged marriage website and they were married in India in 2012.
Jasmine worked in Melbourne hospitals as a nurse but unexpectedly resigned from Mulgrave Private Hospital in 2021.
However she stayed as a casual employee at Dandenong Hospital.
She also attended the Lifespring Pentecostal Church in Cranbourne East, Melbourne.
During this time she told her family she was having marriage problems.
Carolyn was 3 at the time she died (born 2018), and Evlyn was 6 (born 2016).
James recalled how the Gulf War inspired him to teach Evlyn to be a good person.
‘I watched her take her first steps, say her first words. I’d give her pep talks before bedtime … about famine and the war and how kids go hungry, about global warming and climate change to put a desire in her heart to … be a force for change,’ he said.
Jasmine suffered from post natal depression and became paranoid during the Covid pandemic. She contacted a number of professional services, including police in an effort to get help. Jasmine spoke with her doctor in June 2021 and said that she was feeling low and was not sleeping. She was assessed as suffering from mild depression and was prescribed Cipramil which is an anti depressant. She was also given melatonin to treat her insomnia. In October that year, she went back to the doctor to say that the medication was not working. She was referred to a psychologist for further treatment.
Jasmine had a telehealth appointment with a psychologist. She denied having any suicidal thoughts. She told the psychologist that she was stressed about work and that she and James and been arguing a lot. A follow up appointment was scheduled for 31 January 2022, but Jasmine did not keep this appointment.
There was one incidence of violence at the home which was reported to police on September 29, 2021. James called police after he had an argument with Jasmine. He told police that Jasmine had become aggressive and was causing damage to appliances and clothing in the house. The children were in the home at the time. By the time police arrived, Jasmine had left. James spoke with police and said that he did not support any criminal action being taken against her. He signed a ‘Statement of no complaint’.
Police attempted to contact Jasmine that same day but were unsuccessful.
They applied to the Magistrates Court for an Intervention Order to protect James and the children.
On 8th November 2021, Jasmine attended the Dandenong Police Station and was interviewed. Around this time, Jasmine told Child Protection that her husband was ‘making her look crazy.’ She also said that James threatened to call police any time that she got angry because he knows she will ‘get in trouble.’
In October 2021, Jasmine told her doctor that James was verbally abusive. She was referred to Relationships Australia for support as she told the doctor that she could not afford a lawyer. James apparently told Jasmine that he could track her anytime she left their home as he had her iphone log in. He also said that at times he would force her onto the bed in the room and would not let her leave the home if she was angry and screaming, due to the shame it would bring on the family.
On 18 November 2021 an Interim Intervention Order was granted by the Dandenong Magistrates Court, which included conditions that Jasmine could not have any contact with James, Evlyn and Carolyn, and that she could not attend the family home.
Jasmine was worried that the Intervention Order might affect her work and that she might lose custody of the children. She did not have alternative accommodation and spent some nights sleeping in her car. At other times, she would stay at the family home, even though Jasmine and James both knew it was against the conditions of the order.
No further incidents were reported to police and James stated that it was peaceful between them after the September incident.
On 23 February 2022, the Intervention Order application was heard at the Dandenong Magistrates Court. James asked the Court to remove the exclusion condition so that he and Jasmine could live together. A final Intervention Order was issued with the condition that Jasmine must not commit family violence against James, Evlyn or Carolyn, or intentionally
damage any of their property. The order was issued for a period of 12 months. James stated that once the Intervention Order was varied, Jasmine was happier.
Coroner John Cain would say at the inquest:
‘Despite child protection and Victoria Police holding concerns about her mental health, as she was not assessed as acutely unwell and did not wish to engage in services, she did not receive any formal assistance or diagnosis,’ Cain said.
On the night of March 24, 2022, James got home to the family home in Lyndhurst in Victoria at around 6.30pm. He said he found the kids playing with a phone and his wife was laying in bed. James said he was annoyed about this as he did not like the kids to be playing on the phone. He later said that he called Jasmine before he got home and suggested that they all go outside to do something as the weather was nice.
When he did get home, Jasmine said she was not ready and told him that she needed to lay down for a bit longer.
Shortly after this, Jasmine told him that she was going to take the girls to McDonald’s.
She loaded them into the family vehicle, but instead of going to get food, she took them to a service (gas) station and she purchased a jerry can and filled it with petrol. She purchased 6.9 litres of petrol.
She then did take the kids to McDonald’s. They went through the drive-thru and ordered their food. After Jasmine got the food, she drove and parked in the street outside the McDonald’s. She could be seen passing food to the girls and also looking at her phone. They sat in the car park there until around 7.30pm.
Ten minutes later, she drove them to a remote spot on the Western Port Highway. She doused the vehicle with petrol and she then set it alight with herself and the kids inside.
A passerby reported the fire and emergency services rushed to the scene.
Leading Fire Fighter (LFF) Richard MCKAY stating that on arrival at the fire he “saw a car that was fully involved in fire and a grass fire was burning away from the car towards the north.
It was brought under control in 15 minutes.
All three were declared dead at the scene. Jasmine was found dead in the front seat, and the two girls were in the back seat.
At the inquest, an expert named John Kelleher gave testimony. Mr Kelleher holds a Bachelor of Applied Science and Bachelor of Arts. He is a member of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and a Chartered Chemist. He is also a member of the Australian Institute of Physics and is employed by Victoria Police Forensic Services Centre.
Mr Kelleher conducted an extensive and thorough examination of the vehicle to determine the mechanism and cause of the fire.
In his statement Mr Kelleher concluded that the cause of the fire was the ignition of combustible material in the passenger compartment, such as seat covers, seat padding, trim and clothing, assisted by the presence of petrol. A child seat and possibly a booster seat would have increased the amount of combustible material present.
There was evidence of a significant explosion, which caused structural damage to the vehicle.
The windows remained intact, but were bent outwards, the door skins were partly blown off, and the frame was distorted.
There was a relatively low level of petrol detected in the rear of the vehicle, and the fuel-air mixture in the rear may have been lean, which would tend to cause more explosion damage.
There were two children in the rear seat, both of whom were very severely burnt.
Higher levels of petrol were detected in the front passenger footwell, and the highest level was detected on the driver’s seat base cover and padding.
There was an adult female person in the driver’s seat, who was also very severely burnt.
The majority of the fuel appeared to have been on and around the driver, particularly on the driver’s seat, leading to severe burning to the driver. The driver was seated correctly in the driver’s seat, with her seatbelt undone, but with her door closed and probably locked.
There was a small amount of melted red plastic found on the passenger seat. This may have been the remains of a fuel container, but the amount present was so small this could not be confirmed.
There were low levels of petrol detected on material from the rear seat. It was not clear whether petrol was poured in this area or whether it spread to the rear as a result of firefighting.
The source of ignition was not determined. Matches may not have survived the fire, and a cigarette lighter may have been embedded in the debris. While the circumstances suggested that ignition by match or a cigarette was probable, the electrical equipment of the car also presented several possible ignition sources, such as the ignition switch and the various light switches.
James told police that they had a green lighter that was usually kept in a drawer in the kitchen, but that he could not find it after the fire.
James told the coroner’s court of his memories of his family. He recounted how how Carolyn would drag a chair to reach the front door handle and open it as he arrived home from work every day.
She would always be wearing her favourite colour, pink.
He said that Evlyn, ‘was the boss of the house’.
‘She wore the pants,’ James told the court.
‘To see the coffin go down with all of your favourite people in it changes your life,’ he told the court The Age reported.
‘I will never be the same again. Never get to touch, feel or see them again. They will remain pictures on a screen.
‘On March 24 (2022), the sky became three stars richer.’
‘Suddenly, there is no one waiting for me at the door,’ James said through tears.
‘[I’m now] living in an empty and silent house.’
‘My late wife, Jasmine, tried her best. I wish she had … sought help. She struggled to connect and engage with people and make friends. When she couldn’t any more … in the process she took out my most prized possessions,’ James said.
SAVANNAH KRIGER CASE
On 18 March 2024 at around 1pm, Texas woman Savannah Kriger (32) left her job and went to the home of her ex-husband Brian Kriger. The couple had a son together, Kaiden, who was 3. Brian had filed for divorce from Savannah on March 7.
When she got to the home at around 1.15pm, Savannah went inside and damaged items of clothing, furniture and other miscellaneous belongings. Phone tracking would later confirm that Brian was at work at this time. She left the home at 1.24pm.
A custody hearing had been scheduled for this same day. After Savannah damaged Brian’s belongings, she left and went to her own home. She arrived there at 1.57pm. It is believed that she laid out her wedding dresses out on her bed and she shot bullets through her wedding portraits.
She left her home at 2.18pm and she drove to Kaiden’s daycare. She arrived there at 2.32pm. She loaded her son into her car and they left at 2.42pm.
At 2.46pm, she FaceTimed Brian at around and told him “You don’t have anything to go home to now. You really don’t.. and you won’t have anything at all at the end of the day”.
“You left us for a piece of a–… Daddy left us for some woman he met on the internet… explain to your son why you’re not here,” she said during the call. Kaiden was in the back seat of her vehicle during all of this.
When he asked why she vandalized objects in his home, Savannah replied that he “cared more about [his] material possessions than his son.”
Brian recorded this call using another phone.
Brian rushed home after this and found that ‘every article of clothing’ that he owned had been destroyed. Police arrived at his home at 3.37pm.
Brian then contacted the sheriff’s office to make a criminal mischief report. “She sent the message on the tail end of a wire transferring all the money out of [our] joint account,” Brian would later say. “I assumed she was running with him – that’s what prompted my lawyer to initiate the order for writ to make her appear in court the next day.”
“What was going through my head was that I needed to get my son out of her custody as quickly as possible because of her erratic behavior after seeing the damages,” Brian told Fox News Digital. “The only thing that [the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office] did was a welfare check to her residence, which was stupid because I told them that she wasn’t there, and she had my son and intentions to take everything from me.”
Savannah then drove Kaiden to the Tom Slick Park in San Antonio.
Savannah attempted to FaceTime Brian. She then sent a text message stating “Say goodbye to your son”, according to the sheriff’s office.
She tried again a few minutes later to call Brian again. He did not pick up the phone. She recorded a video at 3.21pm from the drainage ditch where she and Kaiden were. She told Kaiden to ‘say goodbye to daddy’, which the child did. She then kissed the child and apologized that his father “can’t be there with [him].”
Savannah’s phone records show that she looked up children’s cartoons at 3:29 p.m. – the department has inferred that these were the child’s final moments, Fox San Antonio reported.
An Amber Alert was raised for Kaiden the following day, but he was already dead. The bodies of the mother and son were found later that day.
The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed that Savannah died by suicide. Kaiden’s death was ruled a homicide. The medical examiner said he died from a gunshot to the head.
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