Victorian Mum Killed By Housemates Who Wanted Her Children

In February of 2016, a guy named Peter Arthur led police to a dry creek bed outside the Victorian town of Bendigo. There they found the body of 39-year-old mother of four, Samantha Kelly.

Peter admitted that Samantha has been drugged, then beaten “six to seven times” in the head with a hammer. Peter said he then drove her lifeless body out of town with his housemate, Ron Lyons, and the two of them buried her in the creek.

In May of 2017, Peter Arthur received a 13-year prison term for murder.

Now Arthur's other two flatmates are on trial, which is revealing just how dark and bizarre the story really is. Because it has since become apparent that Samantha Kelly was murdered by her three housemates, simply because they wanted to have her children.

On Monday, Victoria's Supreme Court heard that the third (and most integral) housemate, Christine Lyons, 47, had desperately wanted children for years. She’d approached 10 friends, asking if they’d have a baby for her, but all declined.

According to the Bendigo Advertiser, Christine Lyons allegedly even offered a teenage ice addict $1,000 if she’d agree to get pregnant by Christine’s partner (and cousin-in-law), Ron Lyons. The woman declined.

After apparently exhausting all avenues for surrogation, Christine, Ron, and their housemate—the aforementioned Peter Arthur—decided to murder their housemate, Samantha Kelly, who lived in a backyard unit with her four children.

In December 2015, they tried to give her an overdose of prescription meds, which didn’t work. According to the Age, Samantha told family at the time she thought her housemates were conspiring against her.

Less than a month later, Peter Arthur beat Samantha to death with a hammer. The court heard that Ron checked she was dead, then told Christine: “You are the mother of her four kids now, and I am the father.’’

It took police less than two weeks to become involved, by which point the children—aged six, five, four, and 11 months old—had been moved into the main house. A 2016 article from the Age describes how the older two children had been renamed and their heads shaved. All children had also started calling Christine “Mum.”

The Bendigo Advertiser also notes that Peter had attempted to enrol Samantha's children in kindergarten, listing himself as “Papa.”

Both Christine and Ron now each face a charge of murder, and one of attempted murder. They strenuously deny both charges and claim that Peter was solely responsible for Samantha’s death.

Defence lawyers yesterday asked jurors to judge the trio on the evidence, and put aside opinions on their Centrelink-dependent lifestyles.

The trial continues.