‘She didn’t know anyone’: Anu’s isolated Australian life before alleged murder

Anu Kumar was in her late 20s when she jumped on a plane from her bustling Indian hometown of Bangalore, to join her husband in their new life in Australia.

The eldest child of her family with two younger brothers, her future was full of promise. Anu smiled warmly in her wedding photos before the international move, adorned with rows of purple bangles and a sunset-coloured sari.

A few years later, she was living in relative isolation in a social housing unit in the Victorian border town of Cobram. On Tuesday, police found the 32-year-old Anu dead inside the house, before arresting her former partner Prem Kumar – who filmed their children on the driveway as her body lay inside.

Prem’s family member, speaking to The Age on the condition of anonymity, described the former couple’s Australian life as shrouded in loneliness. Both of them were from Bangalore in India’s south, and – while Prem had some support and friends in Australia – Anu didn’t “know anyone”, the family member said.

Anu had eight friends on Facebook, and followed four people on Instagram – among them, Prem and two of his family members.

“She came from [a] poor family,” the family member said. “She [didn’t] work.”

The 32-year-old was remembered fondly by her neighbours in Cobram, where she became a friendly face after living there with her young children for about two years. Her death was met with an outpouring of grief as locals came to lay flowers by her home, and pay tribute to the “beautiful” woman.

“[She] didn’t deserve this or her kids,” a neighbour wrote online. “God bless you my beautiful friend I’ll miss [you] so much.”

Anu loved her children deeply – their faces took pride of place on her social media profiles, instead of her own.

Prem’s family member said the now accused murderer – who on Wednesday appeared in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court, where he did not apply for bail – converted from Christianity to Islam after he moved to Australia, partly because of “loneliness”, and partly because of “brainwashing”.

He moved to Australia without Anu and lived with a housemate – during which time he converted to Islam – before Anu came to join him, the family member said. Anu was a Christian.

The couple’s children were born in Australia.

Prem’s online posts discuss religion at length, and – in the videos he filmed after he allegedly killed his wife – he encouraged his children to praise nations including Australia, India and Saudi Arabia, and Hindu and Islamic deities.

The family was initially in complete shock after hearing news of Prem’s arrest, and Anu’s alleged murder. Their minds have since turned to the two children. “In two or three days Anu’s mum will come to [Australia],” the family member said.

Prem is next due to appear in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court on December 10.

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