Man charged following woman’s death in Melbourne’s north

A man has been charged with murder following the death of a woman in Melbourne’s north.

The 50-year-old from Rockbank is expected to face Melbourne Magistrates’ Court this evening, where police will allege he knew the woman personally.

The man was arrested on Thursday night, several hours after the woman, 44, was found unresponsive on Gottloh Street in Epping.

At the time, police said they were treating the death as suspicious.

An Epping resident has described the moment his neighbour knocked on his front door pleading for help after finding his mother’s lifeless body inside their family home.

Ross Albinelli was inside his home on Gottloh Street when he heard someone ringing his bell and some commotion outside.

He walked outside to find his neighbour dressed in his work suit on the driveway.

“Help, my mum’s dead. I don’t know what to do,” the young man reportedly told Albinelli.

Albinelli said his neighbour described coming home from working a shift in his casual real estate job about 5.30pm on Thursday to find his mother’s body upstairs.

“There was blood all over the place,” Albinelli told Nine News.

“I believe that he went [into the home], he saw it, and then right away, he was in shock, and he walked away, and he didn’t know what to do. That’s why he came straight to us.”

Unsure of whether there was a dangerous offender still inside the suburban home, Albinelli said he immediately brought the young man inside and called emergency services.

Albinelli stayed with the man for about five or six hours, as police came and went from the home.

He said the family had moved into the area about a year ago and was quiet and reserved.

“I have my 55-year-old mother here, and I’m the only man in the house. So to me, when I hear that there’s somebody who could be violent around and there’s all these things going on, my first initial thought is, get inside, lock the doors. Let’s figure out what’s happened, and then we can work our way backwards from there,” Albinelli said.

Emergency services responded about at 5.50pm to reports of a woman at a property on Gottloh Street who was unresponsive. Paramedics attended the home, but the woman could not be saved.

While the cause of death is still undetermined, police are treating the death as suspicious.

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