Alois REZ
Alois REZ
Alois Rez was 33 years old at the time he went missing. Alois was last seen on 28 July 2013 at his house in Dubbo, NSW. Investigations into Alois’s disappearance led to two people being charged and convicted for his death.
If you have information that may assist police to locate Alois please contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or via Crimestoppers.com.au.
The sister of murdered Dubbo man Alois Rez has told a Sydney court that the loss of her brother created a "dark hole that burns through your body".
Anna Smart cried as she read her victim impact statement, recalling when she realised her brother may have been dead after he went missing in July 2013.
"My world and my heart broke into a million shards, each one of them cutting me through my chest and right through my body," she said.
"I actually couldn't physically, verbally speak for days.
"All I could do was cry, cry and try to breathe, because sometimes that got really hard."
The Supreme Court has considered sentencing submissions for Mr Rez's former partner Sarah Renea Tarrant, who was convicted of his manslaughter in April this year.
Tarrant was jointly accused of murder alongside Raymond Isaac Roff, a man with whom she had a sexual relationship at the time, though a jury cleared her of murder due to her mental health.
Police laid charges against the pair in August 2013 after uncovering murder plans through phone records, the victim's blood in Roff's car, and an admission from Tarrant regarding loading a body into the same vehicle.
Police believe Roff then drove to an unknown location between Dubbo and Nyngan in central New South Wales, and dumped the body, which is yet to be found.
Section 23A of the Crimes Act allows a person's liability for murder to be downgraded to manslaughter if, at the time of the incident, their ability to understand events, judge right from wrong, or to exercise control is "substantially impaired by an abnormality of mind".
Supreme Court Judge Justice Desmond Fagan questioned whether Tarrant should be considered less liable in Mr Rez's murder than her lover, detailing a number of instances where the woman appeared to act with clear moral understanding.
Psychiatrist Dr Yvonne Skinner had previously told the court Tarrant suffered from depression and a dependent personality disorder, diminishing her ability to make moral judgments.
Tarrant's defence lawyer objected to the judge's decision to consider the offender's psychiatric status, arguing the diagnoses presented at trial could not now be controverted.
But Justice Fagan said he disagreed with the previous assessment of Tarrant's mental health.
"I do not agree that the jury's general verdict of not guilty of murder, guilty of manslaughter involves any finding as to either of the two diagnoses," he said.
"I don't consider that it involves them having adopted beyond a reasonable doubt a diagnosis of depression."
The court heard details the night Mr Rez was murdered on July 28 2013, including how Tarrant gave the deceased crushed sleeping pills so Roff could kill him and dispose of his body.
Justice Fagan questioned Dr Skinner's assessment, saying a 2013 love letter between the Tarrant and Roff regarding taking a morning after pill to prevent pregnancy could be said to show "fine moral judgment".
"I had gone against everything that I have said and promised to myself that I would never do and I did," said Tarrant in the letter.
"Getting rid of our baby before it ever had time to become a baby, it destroyed me tremendously".
Justice Fagan asked Dr Skinner whether the conversation demonstrated Tarrant's moral understanding as well as her sense of right and wrong.
"She had a moral view or position with respect to those things," said Dr Skinner.
"But in my opinion, she had a reduced capacity for moral understanding compared to the average person."
A second psychiatrist and family violence specialist, Dr Carolyn Quadrio, further stated that Tarrant suffered from chronic post traumatic stress disorder following an "extensive history" of abuse, as well as a "childhood of disturbed development".
"In terms of her mental development, I see her as a severely impaired person," she said.
Dr Quadrio added that Tarrant's father is a convicted paedophile, and that a physical altercation between Tarrant and Mr Rez four days before his murder was part of a history of physical and verbal abuse.
"I think her capacity to understand right or wrong is not at all normal," she said.
"I think she could judge that [the murder] was wrong in a very simple way."
Mr Rez's sister swore as she finished reading her victim impact statement, saying "f***ing piece of shit", directed at those depicting her brother as abusive.
"He's more than that, more than the lies that have been said here about how he's portrayed to be," she said.
"I will continue to look for you Alois, and I will love you forever."
The case will return to court on August 12.