Yolonda Mumbulla death: The tragic baby secret which teenage mum took to her grave – as her family give grim update after she was found dead in a squalid unit block

EXCLUSIVE

The grieving father of a teenage mother who died under suspicious circumstances in a squalid housing unit has revealed his heartbreak upon learning of his secret grandchild.

Young mother Yolonda Mumbulla, 19, was found dead in her North Bondi unit in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on Tuesday after her partner Aaron Carey, 32, discovered she was not breathing.

It has now been revealed that Ms Mumbulla’s baby daughter was not with her mother when she died – and the child’s grandfather didn’t even know she existed.

Ms Mumbulla managed to keep her pregnancy a secret from her own father before delivering the child and handing him over to her mother, Kylie, in Queensland.

Her shattered father Derek Mumbler told Daily Mail Australia he is still in shock after hearing about his daughter’s secret pregnancy.

“She was too scared to tell me,” he said at his south-west Sydney home, where he is supported by friends Alyah Pera and Lillian Dibb.

‘I told her not to get pregnant at 17, it’s too young to get older. I didn’t get a chance to see her and her daughter together.’

Childhood friend Alyah said Yolonda and Aaron’s daughter, Zara, was born last September but has since been in the care of her grandmother.

“She’s had her since she was born,” Ms. Pera said.

She said Ms Mulumba was able to conceal her pregnancy in 2023 by wearing loose-fitting clothes.

Despite a troubled history with drugs, her friend said the teen could have been a model mother.

“She was kind-hearted and never lost her temper,” she said. “She would have been a good mother.”

Ms Mumbulla is said to have taken drugs the night before her death. She was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.

When police arrived a short time later, they arrested Carey, who was wanted on an unrelated outstanding warrant for theft, for alleged stolen property and other crimes.

NSW Police are investigating her ‘suspicious’ death amid fears it may be drug-related.

Police executed a search warrant at an address on nearby Flood Street in Bondi at around 5.10pm on Tuesday.

“During the search, police seized 1 gram of methylamphetamine and cannabis at the scene,” a NSW Police spokesperson claimed.

Carey was charged with the outstanding warrant for theft valued at less than or equal to $2,000, three counts of entering a vehicle or boat without the consent of the owner/occupant, destroying or damaging property less than or equal to $2,000, obstructing or resisting a police officer in the execution of duty, and property suspected of being stolen from/on premises.”

Mr Mumbler says he remains in the dark about his daughter’s mysterious death.

“We will sit and wait to hear the facts,” he said.

Court documents reveal Ms Mumbulla stole a bank card and driver’s license from a woman in Rose Bay in the months before her death on October 16.

That morning she used the ANZ card to make three transactions: one to Optus, one to Telstra and a third to Spotify.

She failed to appear in court in February on charges of theft, possession of a stolen driver’s license and obtaining a financial advantage by deception.

She was convicted in her absence and fined $1,550.

a GoFundMe A campaign has now been launched to cover funeral costs and give her the send-off she ‘deserves’, which has already almost raised the target of $10,000.

“There will be music and dance and colour, her indigenous roots were important to her,” Ms Pera explained.

“She liked the colors purple and red, so maybe we would wear bandanas in those colors.”