Woman arrested after mother, partner and newborn girl died in Melbourne fire

A woman was charged with murder and arson in the burning of a house that killed a “young and happy” couple and their newborn baby in Melbourne.

Abbey Forrest, 19, her partner Inderpal Sohal, 28, also known as Indi, and their 3-week-old daughter, Ivy, were found dead in their Point Cook home after it was engulfed in flames in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Detectives with the Fire and Explosives Squad charged a 46-year-old woman with murder and arson that caused death after she was arrested by detectives at West Airport this morning.

She has been charged with three counts each of murder and arson that caused death.

The police are not looking for anyone else in connection with the matter.

The matter will be heard in Melbourne Magistrates Court tonight.

“The woman is believed to have been known to one of the occupants of the property,” police said in a statement today.

“The police are not looking for anyone else in connection with the matter.”

Heroic neighbors desperately tried to smash an upstairs window with an ax to free the young family, but the ferocity of the fire forced them back, destroying the house in a matter of minutes.

Abbey’s sister, Emily Forrest, said she had the “biggest and boldest personality.”

Today she visited her sister’s house with her partner, Joel Martin, to lay flowers and a Peppa Pig toy in memory of the young family.

The family had moved into the house just three weeks before the tragedy.

“Seeing this is just heartbreaking,” Emily said.

“It has been very difficult for my parents to deal with this and I am very fortunate to have so many great friends and family surrounding us at this really difficult time.”

Emily said she was very close to her only brother and that the couple “grew up riding ponies and always running like crazy.”

“She was an amazing mother; she took it like a duck overboard. I’m incredibly proud of her,” Emily said.

“She was absolutely in love. She was so excited to become a mother and she did it so well.”

The couple was moving into the house when Abbey went into labor.

Emily said that her sister’s partner, Indi, was a “very loving man” who adored both Abbey and her daughter.

“I got home early after a camping trip and sneaked into the hospital and had a quick little visit, Covid notwithstanding,” he said.

“Then we had a beautiful family dinner just a week or two ago so we got to meet everyone and our son met his cousin; that was really beautiful.”

Emily said she was “incredulous” and needed to see the house herself to know that something really happened. He also thanked the neighbors who tried to save his sister and her family.

His close friend Gurvinder Singh last spoke to Inderpal on Monday and said he was “really happy” to be a father.

He said that Inderpal had moved to Australia from India about four years ago and they had lived together for about 18 months.

“It helped me a lot when I first moved here, with each and every aspect,” Singh said. “I have no words, only sadness.”

Emergency services were called to the Totem Way property just after 3:30 am yesterday.

Neighbor Jade Bartolo was one of the first to arrive on the scene and said she had been waiting for her partner to get home from work when she heard someone yell “fire.”

He ran to the front door of the burning house but couldn’t get in, so he went to his shed and grabbed an ax.

“Then we saw someone in the upper window, we saw someone yelling for help,” Bartolo said.

“They were trying to half hang on the window and then my partner rocked and started throwing the ax at the window, trying to break it so they could get out.”

“It happened in about four minutes. There was no smoke and then it was black, the whole room.”

After throwing the ax about five times, Bartolo’s neighbor, Jemil, grabbed an object from the garden bed and was able to break the window.

But by then it was too late.

“By the time we broke the window, they didn’t hear a response from who was there,” Bartolo said.

“We saw his arms, like half his body hanging from the window trying to get out the window but they couldn’t.

“Then they fell again and my partner said he heard them take a breath and then fall to the ground. That’s the last we hear.”

Bartolo said it was “horrifying” to see the couple unable to escape.

“It was very sad to see and hear them trying to get help and we couldn’t take them down. We did the best we could,” he said.

“They were saying ‘help, help’. That’s all I can hear in my head right now, just them screaming for help. I can’t forget it.

“They answered at first for the first two minutes and then everything was black, the whole room. It was pretty scary.

“I’ve never seen anything go by so fast and go through almost three houses.”

Bartolo said the window was secured with a chain and couldn’t be opened far enough for a person to get out.

He said firefighters arrived five minutes later.

Bartolo said there was no way the family would have escaped through the front if the fire was at the bottom of the house.

She said her house was almost an exact replica of the one that burned down and that she was now “terrified to stay there.”

“I’ve already been looking for other properties, potentially; we’re only here until February,” Bartolo said.

“It gives me a fucking scare to know they were desperate and you can’t get out. They had nowhere to go. There are only four windows upstairs. I have my own house and I live upstairs myself.

Another neighbor, Kirra Haeata, said she saw someone from the home receiving an Uber Eats delivery about an hour before the fire started.

“I finished work at 1 in the morning and ordered Uber Eats and they were also out front waiting for their Uber Eats,” he said.

“I went to sleep and then the next thing I knew was the neighbor was yelling for me to wake up. I was nowhere to be seen; it was gray all over. Everyone was choking on smoke and their eyes were burning.”

Detective Sergeant Major Mark Kennedy said the fire was being treated as suspicious because of its intensity when firefighters arrived, with the blaze in front and above.

“With accidental fires that doesn’t really happen,” he said.

“I’m sure that with our arson chemist and forensic experts, we have a great team here, I hope we get those answers.”

The house was still cordoned off with police tape today and some bouquets of flowers had been placed out front.

A GoFundMe fundraiser has been created to help the family cover funeral expenses.

– NCA NewsWire