# Katie Perinovic _ Isolation Breakdown

An episode of [This is monsters](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6825840254), 24 Oct 2026, 15 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75937374/katie_perinovic_isolation_breakdown_mp3_128k.mp3



## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: Before we begin, I want to make sure everyone knows
[0:03] Speaker 1: that my other channel, Somewhere Sinister, is back and we
[0:06] Speaker 1: have a ton of episodes coming your way. We hit 80,000
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[0:13] Speaker 1: hit 100,000. If you enjoyed this channel, you'll probably like
[0:17] Speaker 1: Somewhere Sinister. We tell interesting stories that either deal with
[0:21] Speaker 1: crime or are crime adjacent and show a more sinister
[0:24] Speaker 1: side to the world. Each season, we pick a different
[0:27] Speaker 1: area and tell stories from there. The first season was
[0:31] Speaker 1: the Pacific Northwest. We're currently on Season 2, The Deep South.
[0:35] Speaker 1: And soon, we'll move on to Season 3, The American Southwest.
[0:39] Speaker 1: After that, we plan to leave the U.S. and hit
[0:42] Speaker 1: some more exotic locations. Check it out and hit subscribe
[0:45] Speaker 1: if you like it. Let's get to 100,000 subs. Thanks
[0:49] Speaker 1: so much. Now on to the monsters. In January 2021,
[0:53] Speaker 1: the small suburb of Tullamarine, Australia was rocked by a
[0:58] Speaker 1: brutal and tragic event that left an entire community reeling.
[1:03] Speaker 1: The bodies of four family members, including three young children,
[1:07] Speaker 1: were discovered inside their family home. They were all victims
[1:10] Speaker 1: of a horrific murder-suicide. The mother and perpetrator of this
[1:14] Speaker 1: heinous crime has captured the attention of people all around
[1:17] Speaker 1: the world. How could a seemingly loving mother with no
[1:21] Speaker 1: known history of violence carry out such a shocking act
[1:24] Speaker 1: against her own family? The details of the case are
[1:27] Speaker 1: haunting and disturbing as investigators tried to piece together what
[1:31] Speaker 1: led to this tragic outcome, something that has become a
[1:34] Speaker 1: cautionary tale of the dangers that can lurk beneath the
[1:37] Speaker 1: surface of even the most seemingly idyllic lives. This is Monsters.
[1:46] Speaker 1: Thank you. The Perinovich family seemed to be a picture-perfect
[2:16] Speaker 1: suburban unit. Katie Perinovich, a loving mother of three, was
[2:21] Speaker 1: known for her warm smile and her dedication to her family.
[2:24] Speaker 1: Everyone who knew her, even after the tragedy happened, had
[2:28] Speaker 1: come out to say nothing but beautiful things about her.
[2:31] Speaker 1: Her husband, Tom, was a hard-working man with a knack
[2:34] Speaker 1: for fixing anything that broke. Their children, 11-year-old Claire, 7-year-old Anna,
[2:40] Speaker 1: and 3-year-old Matthew, completed the family portrait. To outsiders, their
[2:45] Speaker 1: family was one that most people envied, but that was
[2:47] Speaker 1: a picture of the family prior to 2020. When a
[2:51] Speaker 1: lockdown was ordered in Victoria in March of that year,
[2:54] Speaker 1: Katie was stuck at home without being able to visit
[2:57] Speaker 1: friends and family. Her husband, Tomislav, who goes by Tom,
[3:01] Speaker 1: said that the isolation had a severely negative effect on
[3:04] Speaker 1: Katie's mental state. Neighbors would say that they saw Katie
[3:07] Speaker 1: the day before the event and heard the kids outside
[3:10] Speaker 1: playing in the days prior. Like many people with mental
[3:13] Speaker 1: health issues, Katie was doing a good job of hiding
[3:16] Speaker 1: her own despair. Katie had stopped working at her job
[3:19] Speaker 1: as a physiotherapist in March of 2020, as was mandated
[3:23] Speaker 1: to stay home and take care of the three children,
[3:26] Speaker 1: which included homeschooling their oldest child, Claire. As expected, the
[3:30] Speaker 1: new development was hard on the couple, but Tom said
[3:33] Speaker 1: that it was more strenuous on Katie and it had
[3:35] Speaker 1: a great deal of negative effect on her mental health.
[3:38] Speaker 1: The stress was beginning to take a toll on her.
[3:41] Speaker 1: Between the early days of March and the end of 2020,
[3:45] Speaker 1: Victorians were locked down in their homes for a period
[3:48] Speaker 1: of 262 days, one of the longest lockdowns in history.
[3:52] Speaker 1: Tom also attested, quote, When restrictions were eased, Katie had
[3:56] Speaker 1: started withdrawing from friends. She'd say we can't meet. She
[4:00] Speaker 1: kept reading articles and listening to media news over and over.
[4:05] Speaker 1: Tom also said that she began experiencing paranoia, being scared
[4:08] Speaker 1: and worried over nothing. To avoid her always being indoors,
[4:12] Speaker 1: they started a routine that involved exercises, taking walks in
[4:16] Speaker 1: the evenings, and getting fresh air. As Katie continued living
[4:20] Speaker 1: in isolation from her friends and family, her mental health
[4:23] Speaker 1: rapidly declined. After the lockdown was eased, there was a
[4:26] Speaker 1: three-mile or five-kilometer radius on how far people could travel,
[4:31] Speaker 1: and that made distance become a barrier for her friends
[4:33] Speaker 1: and family members who wanted to come and check up
[4:36] Speaker 1: on her well-being. Therefore, she was not able to see
[4:38] Speaker 1: her family. Days turned into weeks and months, and as
[4:42] Speaker 1: time went by, her memory began becoming affected. At some point,
[4:46] Speaker 1: she couldn't even remember the pin to unlock her phone.
[4:49] Speaker 1: After several failed attempts, they had no other option but
[4:52] Speaker 1: to send the phone away to be unlocked. After a while,
[4:56] Speaker 1: she was able to pick herself up and go back
[4:58] Speaker 1: to work, but after only a few weeks, she quit.
[5:01] Speaker 1: Whatever made her resign her position still remains a mystery
[5:04] Speaker 1: even to Tom, as he never got an explanation before
[5:07] Speaker 1: she would eventually take herself and her children out of
[5:10] Speaker 1: this world. Tom said that a few days after Katie
[5:13] Speaker 1: quit her job, he got a phone call from her
[5:16] Speaker 1: boss telling him that Katie needed medical attention and mental
[5:19] Speaker 1: health help. The boss didn't disclose what had happened, saying, quote,
[5:27] Speaker 1: According to Tom, her boss also mentioned that he wasn't
[5:29] Speaker 1: taking care of his wife. Tom asked in what way,
[5:33] Speaker 1: but her boss didn't elaborate. This vague phone call did
[5:37] Speaker 1: nothing but add confusion to Tom's life and he later said, quote,
[5:40] Speaker 1: I didn't know what her boss was talking about. In
[5:43] Speaker 1: the long run, Katie also became worried about her own
[5:46] Speaker 1: mental health as it continued to deteriorate and she was
[5:49] Speaker 1: left with no other option but to visit the local doctor.
[5:53] Speaker 1: At this point, she was having a mixed feeling of paranoia, exhaustion,
[5:57] Speaker 1: and anxieties. Before she saw the doctor, she had told
[6:01] Speaker 1: Tom that she felt that someone was watching her through
[6:03] Speaker 1: the CCTV camera within their home and she felt she
[6:07] Speaker 1: was being monitored. The local doctor gave her a prescription
[6:10] Speaker 1: for sleeping pills and asked her to go home, but
[6:13] Speaker 1: that was not a result that satisfied Tom. He took
[6:16] Speaker 1: her back to the doctor for further treatment and a
[6:18] Speaker 1: better diagnosis. Katie was referred to the Royal Melbourne Hospital's
[6:23] Speaker 1: Northwestern Mental Health Facility. However, this didn't help as her
[6:27] Speaker 1: mental health continued to spiral out of control as the
[6:30] Speaker 1: lockdown restrictions continued. According to Tom's later statement to the coroner,
[6:35] Speaker 1: he said, Ultimately, the COVID-19 restrictions meant that I wasn't
[6:40] Speaker 1: able to come into appointments with Katie, and I'd have
[6:43] Speaker 1: to wait in the car or not attend. I was
[6:45] Speaker 1: unaware of what was happening in Katie's appointments or her
[6:48] Speaker 1: treatment plan unless Katie told me what was happening. Then,
[6:52] Speaker 1: on one of those days, Tom found a way to
[6:55] Speaker 1: get into the appointment with Katie, but once they were
[6:57] Speaker 1: with the doctor, she asked him to leave. When Tom objected,
[7:01] Speaker 1: it led to Katie having a complete mental breakdown. On
[7:05] Speaker 1: the upside, it was what led Katie to finally being
[7:08] Speaker 1: prescribed medication. After that, Katie asked for some time apart
[7:13] Speaker 1: from her husband which he tried his best to give her.
[7:15] Speaker 1: If she needed time to work on herself, he wanted
[7:18] Speaker 1: her to have it. Within a short time, they were
[7:21] Speaker 1: over with their separation and again the family were back
[7:23] Speaker 1: to living in the same house, under the same roof
[7:26] Speaker 1: and being a happy family. Or more than likely, they
[7:29] Speaker 1: were pretending to be. At the end of 2020, Katie
[7:33] Speaker 1: overdosed on her medication. Tom wanted her to get checked
[7:36] Speaker 1: up at the hospital, but she refused. When she finally
[7:39] Speaker 1: saw the doctor, she told him that she accidentally took
[7:42] Speaker 1: too much, trying to induce sleep and never intentionally wanting
[7:46] Speaker 1: to overdose. The doctor was angry and didn't buy Katie's excuse. Hence,
[7:51] Speaker 1: he told Tom to hide the medications away from Katie
[7:54] Speaker 1: and manage them himself. From that point on, it became
[7:57] Speaker 1: his duty to administer Katie's medication. It turned out that
[8:01] Speaker 1: Tom took the pills out to the garage and hid
[8:03] Speaker 1: them there. Tom mentioned in a later interview that there
[8:06] Speaker 1: wasn't anything explicit that showed that the children could possibly
[8:10] Speaker 1: have been harmed by Katie. She wasn't toxic towards them.
[8:13] Speaker 1: Her approach towards them hadn't seemed to change as her
[8:16] Speaker 1: mental health declined. She was still the loving and caring
[8:19] Speaker 1: mother that she had always been to them, so Tom
[8:22] Speaker 1: had no reason to believe that leaving them alone with
[8:25] Speaker 1: her would put them in any danger. On January 14th, 2021,
[8:30] Speaker 1: Tom had gone out to buy a new television for
[8:32] Speaker 1: the family. He was only away from the home for
[8:35] Speaker 1: a few hours, just enough time to purchase the TV
[8:38] Speaker 1: and to stop by the grocery store. When Tom came back,
[8:42] Speaker 1: he saw the lifeless body of his son lying on
[8:44] Speaker 1: the couch in the living room with a cut and
[8:46] Speaker 1: injuries on his head and arms. With no idea of
[8:49] Speaker 1: what had befallen the remainder of the family, he put
[8:52] Speaker 1: a call through to emergency services. As the paramedics attended
[8:56] Speaker 1: to his lifeless son, Tom went to the other rooms
[8:59] Speaker 1: in the house only to discover what Katie had done.
[9:02] Speaker 1: He returned to the living room and let the paramedics
[9:05] Speaker 1: know that they were all dead. When the Victoria police
[9:08] Speaker 1: got to the crime scene, they instinctively believed that Tom
[9:11] Speaker 1: was the culprit who had committed the murders of his family. Tom,
[9:14] Speaker 1: who was distraught and in shock of what had happened
[9:17] Speaker 1: in his home, was handcuffed by the police. At the scene,
[9:20] Speaker 1: he was interrogated while the paramedics attended to him due
[9:23] Speaker 1: to his shock. He was then taken to the police station.
[9:27] Speaker 1: Tom would later tell the coroner, quote, When the police
[9:30] Speaker 1: came there were so many people and I was in
[9:33] Speaker 1: a state of shock and couldn't speak. I was just
[9:35] Speaker 1: lost for words and it was incomprehensible to me what
[9:38] Speaker 1: I had just seen in my home. The police treated
[9:41] Speaker 1: me unfairly. There were so many faces and detectives questioning
[9:45] Speaker 1: me outside on the nature strip in front of everyone
[9:48] Speaker 1: on the street. He also went further to say he
[9:51] Speaker 1: recalled a policewoman yelling at him during that traumatic moment
[9:54] Speaker 1: which further broke him. When the detectives had seen that
[9:58] Speaker 1: he was probably innocent, they bumped him in a blanket
[10:01] Speaker 1: and dropped him off in front of his parents' house.
[10:03] Speaker 1: He also told the coroner that he wasn't given any
[10:06] Speaker 1: medical help both at the station and when he was
[10:08] Speaker 1: dropped off at his parents' home. The next day, the
[10:11] Speaker 1: police apologized to Tom. However, he asked for a written
[10:15] Speaker 1: apology in hopes that they'd never treat someone else that
[10:17] Speaker 1: way ever again. Despite it being years since the incident,
[10:21] Speaker 1: Tom has yet to be granted custody of his wife's
[10:24] Speaker 1: mobile phone, which contained photographs of the children and his
[10:27] Speaker 1: family as a whole. He called the photos priceless. He
[10:31] Speaker 1: said that Katie's phone was seized by the police for
[10:34] Speaker 1: investigation and examination, and since then it has never been returned.
[10:38] Speaker 1: The Victoria Police have refused to comment if they truly
[10:42] Speaker 1: did give an apology to Tom or as to why
[10:44] Speaker 1: Katie's mobile phone is still in their custody. Tom's sister, Maria,
[10:49] Speaker 1: had come out and said that she had a similar
[10:51] Speaker 1: experience during her brother's arrest. She stated that the police
[10:54] Speaker 1: wouldn't allow her to see Tom while he was in custody.
[10:57] Speaker 1: She also said that they had given her the impression
[11:00] Speaker 1: that he had committed the crime. On top of that,
[11:03] Speaker 1: they didn't outright tell the media that he was innocent immediately.
[11:06] Speaker 1: It was a day later and by then the media
[11:09] Speaker 1: had already broadcast the first news story regarding Tom's arrest.
[11:14] Speaker 1: That was pretty bad. Everyone thought that he was a
[11:16] Speaker 1: guilty man who had murdered his wife and children. His
[11:20] Speaker 1: image was all over the media as a murderer, and
[11:23] Speaker 1: the worst part was that he was dropped off by
[11:25] Speaker 1: the police without any medical help or counseling. There wasn't
[11:28] Speaker 1: any support or social worker provided for him. Tom was
[11:32] Speaker 1: in total shock and his mind was in utter chaos.
[11:35] Speaker 1: After being left to fend for himself, a victim's advocacy
[11:38] Speaker 1: group provided his family with the number of a counselor
[11:41] Speaker 1: they should call. The group told the family that only
[11:44] Speaker 1: three sessions would be covered, and they'd take up payment
[11:47] Speaker 1: for the rest of the service. Then came the stigma.
[11:51] Speaker 1: According to Maria, For men, there is always a stigma
[11:54] Speaker 1: about he treated his family, which is unfair. Tom was
[11:57] Speaker 1: a loving, supportive, kind, loyal, and hardworking father and husband.
[12:02] Speaker 1: It has been extremely difficult for me to watch my
[12:04] Speaker 1: brother go through all of this and see his sadness,
[12:07] Speaker 1: which is ongoing, and it will be for the rest
[12:09] Speaker 1: of his life. At the end of the investigation, a
[12:13] Speaker 1: judge stated, it is likely that the brevity of reviews
[12:17] Speaker 1: from the 8th of December 2020 onward and the lack
[12:20] Speaker 1: of face-to-face or telehealth reviews contributed to psychoeducation not being provided,
[12:26] Speaker 1: and this may have also contributed to her noncompliance. The
[12:30] Speaker 1: judge was unable to state if there was a probability
[12:33] Speaker 1: that the deaths could have been prevented. She did say,
[12:37] Speaker 1: The judge made no findings on what impacts Victoria's lockdowns
[12:39] Speaker 1: had in contributing to the sudden mental illness suffered by
[12:41] Speaker 1: Katie or those tasked with helping her. She said, quote,
[13:04] Speaker 1: I find that there were missed opportunities to intervene in
[13:07] Speaker 1: the course of events preceding and leading to Katie Perinovich's death.
[13:12] Speaker 1: Despite her unforgivable act, Tom still seems to want to
[13:15] Speaker 1: see the best in his wife. According to him, Katie
[13:19] Speaker 1: was a great mom and good physiotherapist. She helped and
[13:22] Speaker 1: treated many patients over her career, and it's a shame
[13:25] Speaker 1: that she was not provided with the level of care
[13:28] Speaker 1: she deserved at her time of need. Despite Katie Paranovic
[13:32] Speaker 1: being a great mother while she was alive, her final act,
[13:35] Speaker 1: the one that ended the lives of her three children,
[13:38] Speaker 1: is what turned her into a monster. If you're the
[13:43] Speaker 1: victim of domestic abuse, please reach out to someone for help.
[13:46] Speaker 1: Please talk to your local shelter or call the National
[13:49] Speaker 1: Domestic Abuse Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE. That's 1-800-799-7233. Or you can
[13:52] Speaker 1: go to thehotline.org to chat with someone online. This website
[14:01] Speaker 1: is set up so that, at any time, hitting the
[14:03] Speaker 1: escape key twice will take you to a Google search page.
[14:06] Speaker 1: That way, if your abuser is nearby, you won't get
[14:09] Speaker 1: caught seeking help. If you're having feelings of harming yourself
[14:12] Speaker 1: or someone else, or even just need someone to talk to,
[14:15] Speaker 1: please contact your local mental health facility. Call 911 or
[14:18] Speaker 1: call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline by simply dialing 988
[14:22] Speaker 1: in the United States. They're available 24 hours a day,
[14:26] Speaker 1: 7 days a week, and will talk to you about
[14:27] Speaker 1: any mental health issue you may be facing. If you
[14:30] Speaker 1: are a member of the LGBTQ plus community and suffering
[14:33] Speaker 1: from discrimination, depression, or are in need of any support,
[14:37] Speaker 1: please contact the LGBT National Hotline at 1-888-843-4564 or go
[14:40] Speaker 1: to lgbthotline.org. Thanks again, and be safe.

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