Jasmine Thomas car fire: James thought his wife was taking their daughters to McDonald’s. Then she did the unthinkable – and he’ll never see any of them again
WARNING TERRIBLE CONTENT
An immigrant mother of two who felt isolated in her new Australian home drove to a remote area and set herself and her two children on fire after telling her husband she was taking them to McDonald’s.
James Swan Palakamannil gave a moving account of what his life has been like since his wife, Jasmine Thomas, and two daughters, Carolyn and Evlyn, died in a car fire in Melbourne two years ago.
“To see the coffin collapse with all your favorite people inside is life-changing,” he told the Coroners Court of Victoria on Tuesday, The age reported.
‘I’ll never be the same again. Never touch, feel or see again. They remain pictures on a screen.
‘On March 24 [2022]heaven became three stars richer.’
Jasmine Thomas and her two children, Carolyn and Evlyn (pictured with Mrs Thomas), died in a car fire in Melbourne’s south-east on March 24, 2022
On Tuesday, Victoria’s Coroners Court ruled that Ms Thomas had deliberately covered her car (pictured) with petrol and set it on fire while she and her two girls were inside.
Mr. Palakamannil remembers how three-year-old Carolyn would drag a chair to reach the front door handle every day and open it when he came home from work.
She would always wear her favorite color: pink.
Her older sister, six-year-old Evlyn, ‘was the boss of the house’.
“She was wearing the pants,” Palakamannil told the court.
Their mother, Jasmine Thomas, suffered from postpartum depression and became paranoid during the Covid pandemic.
On the night of March 24, 2022, Mr Palakamannil had returned to their home in Lyndhurst, in Melbourne’s south-east, where he found their daughters playing on a mobile phone and his wife in bed.
A short time later, Mrs. Thomas told him she was taking the girls to McDonald’s.
However, CCTV footage showed the mother first went to a petrol station in the nearby suburb of Cranbourne West, where she bought and filled a jerry can.
Mrs Thomas then drove herself and her daughters to a McDonald’s car park, where they remained until about 7.30pm.
Less than ten minutes later, she drove to a remote spot on the Western Port Highway, filled her car with fuel and set it on fire with herself and two daughters inside.
Emergency services rushed to the scene after a passerby spotted the devastating fire, which was brought under control within 15 minutes.
Mrs. Thomas, Evlyn and Carolyn all died in the horrific fire.
Carolyn and Evlyn’s father (pictured), James Swan Palakamannil, said ‘the sky gained three stars’ the night they and their mother died
The court heard Ms Thomas suffered from post-natal depression and became paranoid during the Covid pandemic (Picture: Emergency services respond to the fire)
“Suddenly there is no one waiting for me at the door,” Palakamannil told the court in tears.
‘[I’m now] living in an empty and silent house.’
State Coroner John Cain found that Mrs Thomas deliberately took her life and the lives of her two children in an act of domestic violence.
Nicholas Ngai, counsel assisting the coroner, found that Mr Palakamannil and Ms Thomas had married in India in 2012 after meeting on an arranged marriage website.
The couple, both born in Kuwait, moved to Australia and were granted permanent residency in 2015.
Mr. Palakamannil recalled how the Gulf War inspired him to teach Evlyn to be a good person.
‘I saw her take her first steps, say her first words. I gave her bedtime pep talks… about famine and war and how children go hungry, about global warming and climate change, to put the desire in her heart to… be a force for change.” , he said.
Ms Thomas worked as a nurse in Melbourne hospitals but unexpectedly resigned from Mulgrave Private Hospital in 2021.
However, she remained at Dandenong Hospital as a casual worker.
During this time, she told her family that she was having marital problems.
Tearfully, Mr Palakamannil told the court: ‘To see the coffin collapse with all your favorite people inside changes your life’ (photo, scene of the fire)
State Coroner John Cain found that Mrs Thomas deliberately took her life and the lives of her two children in an act of domestic violence (pictured, fire aftermath)
Coroner Cain noted that Ms Thomas had contacted a number of professional services, including the police, and suffered from post-natal depression.
He discovered that those services had no way to prevent her murder-suicide.
“Despite Child Protective Services and Victoria Police concerns about her mental health, she was not given any formal help or diagnosis as she was not assessed as acutely unwell and would not provide services,” Cain said.
Instead, the court heard how Ms Thomas was socially isolated and her problems were often ignored by her extended family.
“My late wife, Jasmine, did the best she could. I wish she had… gotten help. She had trouble connecting, interacting with people and making friends. When she could no longer… she took away my most valuable possessions in the process,” Mr Palakamannil said.
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