A man whose jilted ex-girlfriend broke into his house and set him on fire while children slept in the next room has died in hospital.
Stanley Obi, 33, suffered burns to 90 per cent of his body after his former partner Sarah Mudge doused him and his new lover in petrol and set them alight at their home in New Beith, in Brisbane‘s southern suburbs, at 3am on Thursday.
Mudge, 30, died in the blaze while a brave neighbour named Al dragged the loving dad’s burning body from the wreckage.
He was raced to Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in a critical condition, but he sadly died just before 10pm on Thursday – leaving their children orphaned.
Mr Obi’s new girlfriend, 30, managed to escape the burning home along with three kids – aged five, three and two.
While police are still trying to piece together exactly what transpired in the lead up to the attack, it has been revealed Mudge had been angry about the outcome of a court hearing a day earlier, The Courier Mail reported.
Mudge’s Facebook profile is filled with photos and gushing posts about her children, including one saying her children gave her strength during tough times.
‘When you have no strength left, you have your children, when you are tired they energize you, and when your heart is in mourning they bring joy to your soul. To my babies I thank you for choosing me,’ she wrote.
‘The ones I have now, and the ones I am still waiting for, it is all my heart beats for. I am eternally grateful.’
Just four days ago, Mudge was asking people in a local Facebook group for advice about identifying frogs found in their garden.
‘Scooped these out of our turtle pond. Our turtle was gorging, idk how many he’s got but he’s got very fat recently hence we went searching,’ she wrote.
‘Might they be green tree frogs or cane toads, or something else. We’ve seen both, and the kids think they saw a yellow frog a while back.
Mudge also had an online Facebook blog called Handsful-heartfuller, dedicated to homeschooling her children.
The last post, in November, described the first full year of homeschooling as a success.
She boasted about her son being a year ahead of his age as she hinted at a acrimonious split with her ex. The pair had a long term relationship which broke down last year.
‘I hope I’m not forced through family court to send him to school to essentially repeat the year and hold him back. But there’s not much I can do,’ she wrote.
She described the educational benefits of grocery shopping in another recent post.
‘I know a lot of parents hate it, but it’s a great chance to teach them responsibility, math and understanding that money is not endless. I give my kids $5 each each shop. Sometimes they get many things, sometimes they can’t afford something and have to put it back,’ Mudge wrote.
Mudge also described herself as a self-taught photographer and ran her own photography business.
‘I have always enjoyed capturing special moments, no matter what they are, My absolute focus is to make you happy! spending time getting that perfect shot is what I really enjoy,’ her website states.
‘I would like to focus primarily on newborn and young family photography, and I have a particular passion to include the whole family, young, old, furry, feathery and scaly, I’m always seeking new ideas, and unique families.’
The website added she was taking a break to have children but planned to reopen her studio in 2020.
Another recent post revealed she and her family had been flooded in during the recent floods in south-east Queensland.
Nine weeks ago, Mudge posted a chilling, but vague, message to Facebook saying: ‘She’s not toxic bro. You made her like that. Now you think she is crazy.’
Police confirmed Mr Obi and Mudge were known to police while they were living together previously in another area.
It is understood Mr Obi had built the home last year.
Detective Acting Superintendent Mark White said there had been orders between pair, but police had not been made aware of any threats or incidents of violence.
‘The previous contact had been outside of the Logan district and there … wasn’t specific concerns around specific threats,’ he said.
‘There were, in one instance, cross applications (for orders). And they were made privately.
‘Both parties (took) an application out against each other … around August last year.
‘I believe there was only – that instance happened once.’
A hero neighbour known as Al dragged the loving father’s burning body from the wreckage.
Neighbours Scott and Michelle, who live next door to Al, told Daily Mail Australia he frantically tried to knock on everyone’s doors on the street – but no one woke up.
‘He knocked on a few doors and the guy the next house over did the same. I think he knocked on a few doors across the street,’ Scott said.
‘But the first we heard of it was when the sirens lit up the street – we came out to see what was happening but there was no sirens just lights.’
They said Al stayed with Mr Obi until an ambulance came 35 minutes later.
Another neighbour told the Courier Mail that he worked hard to get everyone – including Mudge – out of the burning house.
‘I tried to get everyone out of there through the side of the house, and then someone said there’s a lady in there so I tried to go back in but it was too significantly burnt already, I couldn’t get in,’ he said.
Mr Obi was a professional nurse and knew his burns were life-threatening.
‘He said to me, ‘I’m not going to make it, I’m going to die, I’m going to die, you need to help me. Help me,’ the neighbour recalled.
‘He was giving me his hand, reaching out to me to hold it, and I wasn’t going to hold his hand because I know about infection control.’
Just weeks before the tragedy, Mudge wrote a cryptic post on Facebook under the heading ‘relationship rules’.
‘She’s not toxic bro,’ she wrote.
‘You made her like that. Now you think she is crazy. Your decisions reflect her actions. Check yourself.’
Mr Obi’s friend said he and his new partner built their new dream home last year, and only moved in late October.
His shattered family told Nine News ‘this is too much to bear’ and that he had been the ‘happiest he’s ever been’.
Superintendent White said there is no evidence that a Molotov cocktail was thrown, and believe Mudge ‘somehow gained entry and then once in there was able to throw petrol around’.
‘We believe the person who does not live at that residence was somehow able to gain entry and then once in there was able to throw petrol around and that’s how it’s gone,’ he told reporters.
Police do not believe anyone else was involved.
Police said Mr Obi and his new partner had lived in the house for about six months.
Detectives are yet to interview the surviving woman and have appealed to the public for information.
‘We haven’t been able to actually speak to the … female occupant of that house,’ Det Supt White said.
‘And once we are able to do that, we’ll be able to verify, I’d say in quite detail, precisely what has transpired.’
One resident said fire trucks and police sirens woke him up at 3am.
‘Could see the fire from mine, (easily) 10 metres high,’ he wrote on social media.
A spokesman from Queensland Fire and Emergency Services told Daily Mail Australia the property was ‘well engulfed’ when four crews arrived on the scene.
‘There was a partial roof collapse,’ he said.
Fire fighters spent more than two hours trying to douse the flames.
Source: Daily Mail
