Russell Lea death: Annette Kiss narrowly escaped her home when it was destroyed in an inferno – but five weeks later she was allegedly murdered in a shocking bloodbath by a housemate she’d only just met

A mother of two who was allegedly murdered by her new roommate had just moved into the share house after her former home burned down five weeks earlier.

Benjamin Art, 42, is alleged to have murdered Annette Kiss, 53, at the home they briefly shared in Russell Lea, in Sydney’s west, on Thursday morning, using a sword, a meat cleaver and a claw hammer.

According to police, he ran into the house with his weapons, yelled at his four roommates to sit down and showed text messages on his phone from an unknown sender that read “Ms Kiss.”

“You’re trying to set me up, who’s going to kill me? Who’s that chick texting me?” he allegedly yelled.

“You’re trying to trap me or have me killed, and now you’re trying to kill me.”

Art is said to have held Ms Kiss by the neck before grabbing the cleaver, while another female housemate tried to stop the alleged attack with a chair before fleeing and calling the police.

On Friday, a neighbour told Daily Mail Australia that the surviving housemates were “too traumatised” to return to the house and collect their belongings.

Benjamin Art (pictured) has been charged with the alleged violent murder of his roommate

She also said Kiss was a mobile dog groomer with two children and had only moved into the property five weeks ago because her former home had gone up in flames when an e-bike’s lithium-ion battery exploded.

According to the local resident, Art lived in a shed at the front of the property, away from the main house, and Mrs. Kiss would often stand outside the house after 8 p.m. burning items in a fire barrel.

“Our house filled with smoke, I asked her to stop burning and offered her our trash cans and she got a little shy in an ‘I can do whatever I want’ kind of attitude,” she said.

“She was dealing with some unsavory characters so I backed off a bit and she kept setting things on fire – and I’m talking massive flames every night for the last three weeks.”

The neighbor said she didn’t know what Mrs. Kiss was burning.

Art was an unemployed mason who had only lived on the property two weeks before the alleged murder.

Annette Kiss (pictured) was a mobile dog groomer with two sons

In the photo: police at the crime scene, Friday, after Benjamin Art allegedly murdered Annette Kiss

When police arrived at the house, they reportedly found him lying on Mrs. Kiss’s body with a sword.

Another neighbor who saw the arrest said Art was “dirty and wearing a tracksuit.”

“His feet were black and dirty, he was flailing around like a seal on a rock and cursing like a sailor,” he said.

He was represented by barrister Javid Faiz in the Parramatta Bail Court on Friday. He did not apply for bail, but it was formally refused.

“My client understands the seriousness of the matter,” Faiz said outside court, according to the Daily Telegraph.

“He has instructed me not to apply for release today.”

His case will return to Burwood Local Court on August 22.

Detective Chief Inspector Christine McDonald said Thursday that Art had no history of violence and said he was not romantically involved with Ms Kiss.