‘Please don’t’: Inquest hears painfully slow response to triple-zero call made by Floreat murder victim

November 9, 2026 — 4:17pmWarning: This story contains distressing content.The heartbreaking triple-zero call made by an 18-year-old woman who moments later was shot and murdered alongside her mother was played in a Perth court on Monday as an inquest into how a man suffering with the effects of a stroke was able to kill two women and himself, despite multiple warnings.Mark Bombara, 63, was hunting for his estranged wife when he showed up at the home of Jennifer Petelczyc, 59, and her 18-year-old daughter, Gretl, in the wealthy inner suburb of Floreat, armed with two handguns on May 24, 2024.Mark Bombara.Rowena Bombara had asked for a divorce and fled the family’s Mosman Park home with Bombara wrongly assuming she was staying with her best friend.During the start of a five-day inquest, counsel assisting the Coroner, Rachael Young, said Gretl called triple-zero after Bombara entered her home with a gun at about 4.30pm on the day she died.Playing the call to the inquest, she can be heard quietly asking an operator for police, giving her location and telling them, “there is a guy in my house with a gun”.The operator tried to put the call through to the WA Police Assistance Centre, but the call was not answered for one minute and 20 seconds. The call is then disconnected at Gretl’s end.At the same time, Jennifer was on the phone to Rowena and Bombara’s daughter Ariel who say they could hear Jennifer telling Bombara, “She’s not here. I told you she’s not here” and then, “Mark put down the gun” or “Mark put the gun away”.Upon hearing this, Ariel called triple zero herself, about five seconds after Gretl did.The Police Assistance Centre took almost a minute to answer the call, the inquest heard.At the same time, Rowena was still on the call to Jennifer and says she heard Mark say, “put the zip ties on, you know how they work”.Gretl’s sister also called triple-zero after getting a Facebook message from her from inside the house. Gretl sent her sister multiple messages while her hands are tied saying, “call the police”, “my hands are tied”, “he has a gun”, “help” and “call police”.Jennifer Petelczyc, 59, and her youngest daughter, Gretl, 18.“Gunshots were heard through the phone [call to Rowena], which was communicated by Ariel to the police officer,” Young told the inquest.CCTV from a neighbouring property then heard Jennifer say, “come back, no” and then, “come on darling. No, please don’t.”Bombara can then be heard saying, “right now, you get ...” followed by a woman screaming.Gretl then called triple-zero again and can be heard whispering down the phone saying, “there is a guy with a gun in my house”. Once again her call is put through to the Police Assistance Centre which is not answered for another minute and five seconds.“While the operator is doing that, a scream can be heard, followed four seconds later by something that sounds like a gun shot,” Young said.“By the time the Police Assistance Centre picked up, the call had been disconnected.”In total, five gunshots were heard, with both women shot dead by Bombara, before he turned the gun on himself. Police arrived to discover the bodies.Bombara’s daughter spoke out days after the deaths pointing the finger at WA Police after she revealed she and her mother had sought help on multiple occasions, warning them of her father’s increasingly erratic behaviour while he had access to 13 guns he legally owned.She claimed officers “did not have much care for our situation” before launching a scathing assessment of how their concerns were handled.In a statement read out at the inquest on Monday, Ariel said the officer that addressed their concerns at Mirrabooka Police Station on Easter Sunday, weeks before the murders, was “rude, patronising and didn’t seem to care”.Jenny Petelczyc and her daughter Gretl making a Tiktok video together.TikTokIn response WA Police undertook an internal inquiry with the report finding that eight police officers had failed to perform their duties, causing them to face internal disciplinary action.On Monday, Young told the inquest there were six issues that needed to be examined by the inquest including the police response to family violence, Bombara’s firearms license continuation, the response to triple-zero calls, issues with a police radio system on the day of the murders, the healthcare received by Bombara and the response to concerns about his mental health.Bombara’s other three children - Isaac, Eden and Candice - supplied a statement to the inquest stating that in their opinion, their father’s mental health was a “much more significant factor to investigate”.“Dad was not a physically abusive person, but rather he had become seriously unwell in the months preceding the events of the 24th of May,” the statement read.“His stroke and brain cyst diagnoses in January 2024, followed by a second stroke on the 4th May 2024 resulting in an acquired brain injury, led to behavioural changes and altered thought processing. These medical events and our mother and sister unexpectedly cutting contact caused significant distress to dad, and he exhibited severe signs of depression and anxiety.”Mark Bombara.They added that they were “beyond disappointed” in the care their father received at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in the months before the murders.“It has been well known for years that the public health system faces significant challenges in terms of under resourcing, particularly when it comes to mental health services,” the statement read.“We wonder frequently if dad had received the care he was due, would Jenny and Gretl still be alive, and would he have not killed himself.”The inquest heard one of Bombara’s daughters, Candice, asked health professionals for a mental health assessment on May 7 weeks before the murders while he was admitted to Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.Her concerns were noted but Bombara was still discharged and sent home.Those doctors who assessed Bombara will give evidence during the inquest, as will police officers.If you or anyone you know needs support, call Lifeline on 131 114 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636.More:CourtsCrimeCrimeCourtsLawPoliceWA courtsFloreatPerthFrom our partners