A witness claims he heard a man screaming ‘somebody help me’ and a loud crash come from an apartment of a marketing executive who died after running through a glass door in her apartment.
Claire Austin, 38, partially severed her arm by running through an internal glass door in her top-floor apartment on Randwick St, Randwick, in Sydney‘s east, just after 7.30am on Saturday.
A concerned neighbour rang Triple Zero and paramedics rushed her to St Vincent’s Hospital where she was placed on life support for three days before she died. Her boyfriend, recruitment executive Lee Loughlin, 44, has reportedly told police the pair were having an argument prior to the incident.
Mr Loughlin assisted police with their inquiries and was admitted to a mental health facility.
‘He has since been released without charge and no arrests have been made at this time,’ a NSW Police spokesman said, with the police investigations continuing.
An 11-year-old child who lives in the same street as the late Ms Austin said he heard the pair shouting right before the incident and it was ‘at a different level than usual’.
His mother, who gave him permission to speak to Daily Mail Australia, said her family heard Claire and Mr Loughlin ‘fighting constantly’.
‘It sounded way worse,’ the child said of the row. They both sounded (like) something wrong would happen.
‘I heard the woman at first and it worried me. Then I heard the man. I think I heard a crash and then I didn’t hear the woman again.’
The child added that he then heard a man screaming ‘somebody help me’ over and over.
The child said the sound of the fight, which began at around 7am on Saturday, caused his father to go out on the street to investigate because he was so alarmed.
He said after the crashing sound and the woman going quiet, someone had called Triple Zero and soon after the ambulance and police had arrived in the street.
Daily Mail Australia earlier revealed an application for an apprehended violence order on behalf of Ms Austin was to be made at Waverley Local Court on Thursday.
It is not suggested the person named in the order was linked to the incident that led to her death. PolicOn Wednesday, a bouquet of flowers was left at the front of the apartment complex in a touching tribute to Ms Austin, who held down different jobs in events, marketing and media companies.
Accompanying the flowers was a card with a heartbreaking apology to Ms Austin for the failure of Australia’s justice system.
‘I am so sorry that this happened to you, especially on the shores of a foreign country,’ the card read.
‘Our justice system couldn’t protect you and I am deeply sorry for this.’
Ms Austin, who was originally from the UK, had been living in Australia for the past 10 years.
After being told Ms Austin would not survive her injuries, her family immediately flew from the UK to Sydney and arrived on Tuesday morning just hours before she passed away.
NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Peter Thurtell said Ms Austin’s death was being treated as a criminal matter.
‘This is a tragic loss of life and we are determined to work out exactly what happened,’ Deputy Commissioner Thurtell told the Daily Telegraph.
Police launched Strike Force Lyndoch to investigate the exact circumstances surrounding Ms Austin’s death.