Joel Cauchi is revealed to have stalked other shopping centres and Googled ‘how to kill’ before Westfield Bondi Junction stabbing rampage

The Westfield Bondi Junction knifeman had reportedly been investigating murder and stalking other shopping centers before his stabbing.

Joel Cauchi, 40, fatally stabbed six people and injured at least 12 others in a rampage in Sydney’s busy shopping center on Saturday afternoon.

The killer’s distraught family have spoken of his long battle with mental illness and his obsession with knives.

His mother, Michele, said Monday that her son was “clearly not in his right mind.”

“He had somehow gone into psychosis and lost touch with reality,” she said.

But it has now emerged that Cauchi’s rampage may not have been a spontaneous attack and that he may have been planning it for weeks.

He had reportedly investigated homicides and stalked other malls before his stabbing

Cauchi had Googled “murders” before the attack.

“Today I learned that investigators were able to download data from his phone, suggesting he had a fixation on murders,” A Current Affair crime editor Simon Bouda revealed.

‘He also had a fixation with knives. That tells us it wasn’t a spontaneous attack.

‘Beforehand he thought about murder, and that is terribly frightening.’

Cauchi was spotted at Westfield shopping centers in Penrith and Parramatta, in Sydney’s west, in recent weeks.

“What was going through his mind?” asked Mr Bouda.

Cauchi was spotted at Westfield shopping centers in Penrith (pictured above) and Parramatta (below), in Sydney’s west, in recent weeks

Westfield Parramatta is pictured

“Did he visit other locations that he thought were suitable for what he wanted to do? Did he just visit? Who knows.’

Mr Bouda also revealed that police hope the CCTV footage from Westfield Bondi Junction will never be released to the public because it is so ‘chilling’.

“It’s so horrible, cold and callous that the police don’t want it to become public,” Bouda said.

Six people – five women and a male security guard – were killed in Cauchi’s stabbing, while several others were injured.

On Monday, Cauchi’s parents said he was schizophrenic and had lived at their home in Toowoomba, southern Queensland, until he was 35.

His life was derailed when he tried to get off his antipsychotic medication because “he wanted to have a life” — but instead triggered his psychosis, his parents said.

‘How do you love a monster? Give them birth!’ said tearful father Andrew Cauchi.

‘I loved my son. But he had a fascination with knives.

“He had five or six army commando knives. He had a problem with women, he couldn’t get a girlfriend.’