Following a peaceful family dinner, Dale Vella focused a loaded gun on her sleeping partner’s eye â and pulled the trigger
The rural property tucked behind tall pine trees in Murrumbateman in New South Wales was the home of Dale and Mark Vella. Their 22-year-old daughter, Georgia, lived in a converted stable block nearby. Dale, 54, and Mark had been married for 23 years. A degenerative eye condition had left 52-year-old Mark legally blind, although he could see well enough to work as a farmer.
Life hadn’t been easy for the pair, who had struggled with finances over the years. They had lost a daughter to brain cancer when she was only three, and Dale had undergone a double mastectomy and chemotherapy after developing breast cancer.
Monday 9 August, 2021, was a regular day on the farm. One of the family dogs had gone missing and Dale and Georgia had ridden around on a quad bike until it was found. The firewood was stacked, and that evening the family sat down to dinner with David Borg, Mark’s lifelong friend who lived with them.
Mark had cooked, as he often did, but Dale seemed to be off her food and told her daughter she wasn’t feeling well. After watching TV, the household went to bed.