The Sef Gonzales Tragedy

 Sef Gonzales, born on 16 September 1980, is a Filipino Australian man who received a life imprisonment sentence for the murders of his father, Teodoro "Teddy" Gonzales (46), his mother, Mary Loiva Gonzales (43), and his sister, Clodine Gonzales (18), in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, in July 2001. The notoriety surrounding the sale of the house where the crimes occurred prompted the New South Wales government to make it illegal not to disclose information about a property's history.

Sef Gonzales was born in 1980 in Baguio, Benguet, Philippines, to Teddy Gonzales, a lawyer, and his wife Loiva Claridades, who married in 1977. In 1983, Sef's sister Clodine was born. After the 1990 Luzon earthquake destroyed their family's home and business, they emigrated to Australia. Settling in Sydney, New South Wales, Teddy requalified as a lawyer, established a successful immigration law firm, and bought a plot of land in North Ryde.

Although the Gonzales family appeared close-knit, the parents were devout Catholics with high hopes and strict expectations for their children. They particularly wanted their son to excel academically and abandon his musical and singing ambitions, urging him to pursue a career in medicine or law. Sef attended Parramatta Marist High School before starting medical science studies at the University of New South Wales, but he withdrew after two years and enrolled in law at Macquarie University.

Struggling academically and facing the risk of expulsion, Sef Gonzales attempted to conceal his poor performance by falsifying his grades. When his sister revealed this to their parents, they threatened to withdraw certain privileges, including the use of his prized car, a green Ford Festiva. Additionally, Gonzales had disagreements with his mother over a disapproved girlfriend, leading to threats of disinheritance. Police later established these issues, along with Sef's desire to inherit the family's assets, as motives for the murders.

On 10 July 2001, around 4:00 p.m., Sef Gonzales left the family's law firm, where he worked part-time, and went home armed with a baseball bat and two kitchen knives. He entered Clodine's bedroom and attacked her while she was studying, strangling her, hitting her head with the bat multiple times, and then stabbing her with one of the knives. The cause of Clodine's death was a combination of neck compression, blunt force head injuries, and abdominal stab wounds. Gonzales then waited for Loiva to arrive home around 5:30 p.m. He attacked her in the living/dining room with one of the kitchen knives, causing multiple stab wounds and cuts to her face, neck, chest, and abdomen. Her windpipe was completely transected post-mortem.

At approximately 6:00 p.m., Gonzales' maternal aunt visited the house and observed her nephew's and sister's cars in the driveway. However, the house was dark and unusually quiet, even though the family kept six small dogs inside. She decided not to enter via the garage after noticing movement inside. Teddy arrived home at about 6:50 p.m., and upon entering the house, Gonzales attacked him with one of the kitchen knives, inflicting multiple stab wounds to his neck, chest, back, and abdomen. One of the stab wounds penetrated his right lung, another his heart, and another partially severed his spinal cord. Teddy's defensive wounds suggested a struggle.

After the murders, Gonzales disposed of the murder weapons, clothing, and the size 7 running shoes he was wearing. He then showered, changed clothes, and spray-painted offensive graffiti on a wall in the house, attempting to mislead investigators into believing it was a hate crime against Asians. Gonzales later visited a friend's house, and they went to the Sydney central business district, where they dined at Planet Hollywood and visited a video game arcade. After dropping off his friend, Gonzales returned home and called emergency services at 11:48 p.m., falsely claiming to have discovered the bodies. He also ran to his neighbors' house frantically and informed them that his parents had been shot.

Following the murders, Gonzales made television appearances, urging the killers to come forward and expressing his desire for justice, offering a reward of A$100,000. A few days later, he visited the family's accountant to inquire about his inheritance, estimated at A$1.5 million in Australia and ₱1.3 million in The Philippines. As a supposed victim of the crime, he was also eligible for a A$15,000 payout. Gonzales moved to an apartment in Chatswood and placed a deposit on a A$173,000 Lexus, stating he would use his inheritance to pay for it. At the trial, it was claimed that he traded in his parents' cars and pawned his mother's jewelry. He also told relatives that he had a brain tumor and requested A$190,000 from his godmother in the Philippines for alleged surgery, but she refused to give him any money. At the combined family funeral on 20 July, he delivered the eulogy and sang "One Sweet Day," which some attendees found strange.

Based on the initial evidence, the NSW Police investigators initially assumed the murders were part of a robbery attempt. However, the absence of forced entry and the lack of missing valuables, including cash, along with the extended duration of the crimes, led them to suspect Gonzales' involvement. They noticed his emotional detachment and numerous inconsistencies in his story, such as his claims of performing CPR and the absence of evidence supporting the presence of intruders. Further evidence implicating Gonzales included paint matching on his clothes to the graffiti and a shoe box in his room matching the shoes used in the attack. This prompted authorities to search Gonzales' internet records, record his phone calls, and have an undercover officer befriend and surveil him.

In December 2001, the police discredited Gonzales' first alibi that he was in his car in the driveway on the night of the murders before driving to another suburb and meeting his friend. He then fabricated a second alibi, claiming he took a taxi and visited a brothel during the murders, but both the supposed taxi driver and a sex worker discredited this claim. Other false trails included a fabricated email implicating a business rival of Teddy in the murders and staging an attempted burglary in May. A breakthrough occurred when Gonzales' fingerprint was matched to a series of product poisoning letters found on his personal computer, alongside evidence of his research into poisons, the ordering of toxic-plant seeds, and recent unexplained poisoning-like illnesses in his family. As a result, detectives from Strike Force Tawas arrested Gonzales on 13 June 2002.

Gonzales faced three counts of murder and one count of threatening product contamination. He was denied bail and held on remand in Silverwater Correctional Centre. During this time, he was unable to access the family's estate for his defense and sought legal aid for the murder trial that took place in April and May 2004. Prosecuted by Mark Tedeschi, the trial revealed that Gonzales had planned the murders months in advance, initially researching the idea of poisoning his family, leading to an elaborate contamination hoax one week before the killings. The court heard about numerous lies he told to friends, family, and the police regarding his whereabouts during the murders, suggesting a pattern of pathological lying. The motivation behind the murders was his fear that his poor university performance would lead his parents to take away his car and revoke other privileges, wanting to be the sole beneficiary of their property.

On 20 May 2004, Gonzales was found guilty on all four charges and sentenced on 17 September 2004 to three concurrent life sentences without parole for the murders. Justice Bruce James characterized the murders as heinous and found no mitigating factors to lessen their severity. Gonzales sought an appeal in June 2007, granted approval by the Supreme Court due to potentially inadmissible statements taken from him by police on the night of the murders. However, the appeal was dismissed on 27 November 2007 as no miscarriage of justice was found, and his convictions remained.

In March 2021, Gonzales failed in his third attempt to initiate a special inquiry into his convictions for the murders, following unsuccessful applications in 2018 and 2019. The house in North Ryde, built by the Gonzales family in 2000 and put on the market shortly after the murders, remained unsold for three years due to its notoriety. When prospective buyers from Taiwan agreed to purchase the property, they were not informed of the events that occurred there by the realtors, LJ Hooker, learning about it from a newspaper later on. LJ Hooker initially refused to reverse the sale as they had no legal obligation to disclose the information but eventually refunded the buyers' $80,000 deposit due to negative publicity, resulting in a A$21,000 fine by the NSW Office of Fair Trading. Consequently, the NSW government made it illegal not to disclose information that could substantially affect a property's value. In November 2005, the house was eventually sold for A$720,000 (A$80,000 less than the previous price) to a buyer who was informed of its history.

How to Raise HDL Cholesterol Levels

HDL cholesterol is often known as the good cholesterol. HDL levels less than 40mg/dl are likely to elevate the risks relating to coronary heart disease. Building good cholesterol levels enables you to eliminate the plaque. The proper amounts of HDL are any where from 40mg/dl to 60mg/dl. At the same time, HDL cholesterol levels greater than 60mg/dl helps reduce the possibilities of heart disease. Unhealthy cholesterol (LDL) raises the plaque which often brings about heart disease. There are some methods to help increase the good cholesterol ( HDL) levels by natural means.

Cholesterol is a waxy substance that is found in all of the cells of the human body. These particular cells pass by way of the bloodstream in all of the areas within the entire body. They're attached with proteins. Such proteins are known as lipoproteins.

Low density lipoproteins at proper amounts are actually helpful to your body. This circulates throughout the entire body and provides cholesterol to various tissues as well as organs. Any time there is too much LDL, it becomes lodged within the walls in the blood vessels underneath the lining. After a while, this will begin to reduce the size of the blood vessels that causes heart disease.

High density lipoproteins (HDL) are classified as the good cholesterol. It cleans away the plaque that settled on the walls within the blood vessels. It is then returned into the liver and also broken down.

It is important not simply to lower LDL but additionally to raise HDL. This could be explained that rise in HDL cholesterol levels is an necessary factor to lessen the possibility of heart disease.

It is also possible to raise the good cholesterol levels by natural means by a modification in diet and lifestyle. Shedding weight is an crucial factor in boosting HDL levels. Frequent aerobic fitness exercise which boosts the heart rate will likely aid to raise HDL cholesterol levels.

Smoking

Smoking is definitely extremely damaging for health. When you stop smoking HDL levels in the body will rise.

Alcohol

Moderate intake of alcohol is beneficial for health. On the other hand, too much alcohol reduces the body's HDL cholesterol levels. A drink per day is healthy.

A number of food items help boost HDL cholesterol levels.

· Consuming one half an onion each day helps raise HDL cholesterol levels by TWENTY FIVE percent.

· Oats, grains, pears, citrus fruits, grape varieties, dried beans and lentils include soluble fibers. Soluble fibers aid in increasing HDL cholesterol levels.

· Canola oil as well as olive oil have high levels monounsaturated fats. These aid in increasing HDL cholesterol levels.

· Fish, sunflower oil, flaxseed oil and vegetables have omega 3 fatty acids that aid in increasing HDL cholesterol levels.

· Soy products such as tempeh and also tofu also aid in increasing HDL cholesterol levels.

· Olive oil and also canola oil include monounsaturated fats. These also aid in increasing HDL cholesterol levels.

All these are only many of the strategies where HDL cholesterol could be raised naturally.

Have your cholesterol checked regularly. When you know your cholesterol numbers, it is good to have the correct cholesterol risk chart to find out your risk level. It is never to early to make changes in your lifestyle. After all, this is the only body we have.

to all nurses

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LIFE, DEATH AND RENEWAL

A sense of foreboding gripped me as I entered the department. The aides were pushing a morgue stretcher away, leaving sharp intakes of breath and a muffled cry. Three nurses huddled around the triage desk, one nurse was visibly upset.

Outside the trauma room stood two burly policemen. The aftermath of a trauma resuscitation greeted me: the blood-splattered floor was strewn with discarded clothes, a used stylet, wadded gauze, and the blue overwraps from the instrument trays.

The night nurse looked shell-shocked. On Bed A, an unconscious male patient lay in a tangle of wires and tubes. The ventilator hummed and the monitors bleeped. Endotracheal tube to the ventilator, sinus rhythm on the monitor, an arterial line, two large-bore IV lines, a urinary catheter, right chest tube, right leg splint, dried blood on bandaged head, and his left hand cuffed to the side rails.

"Here's our 20 year-old trauma patient... this..." the night nurse bit her lip to stifle an expletive. "This person just murdered his girlfriend, her two children and her grandma. Shot them point-blank. He jumped four stories off the roof after he was chased by the police. All this because she tried to leave him after a night of beatings. That was the youngest child we just sent to the morgue. " Her voice broke and we both shuddered.

We stood at the bedside and shared each other's anger. The thought of the carnage this man left behind made me recoil in disgust. I felt a need to cry; bile rose up in my throat. Even in repose, this man's face looked so evil, almost satanic. Despite all the repulsion I felt, I had no choice; I had to take care of this patient. My training and my ethical responsibility will ensure that I give this patient the best of care, no matter what.

The night nurse struggled to finish the report. She was rambling, obviously wanting to simply put the ugliness behind her. I could only pat her back. "He's pending the CAT scan results. His pupils are fixed and dilated; he's unresponsive to any stimuli, no corneal reflexes, and he's posturing." This patient is as good as dead, I thought. The machines keep him alive.

As if on cue, the physician strode over. "He's got a huge subarachnoid bleed. No surgery for him. We're starting brain death protocol on him... and surprise! The cops just found his organ donor card."

Somehow, my anger simmered away. I clutched at one straw of sanity... in one rational moment, this man has willed his organs so that in his death, others could live. The organ donor card tells me that at one point in his life, this man cared enough. A little too late. Why couldn't he be as generous in life?

http://jo-cerrudo.blogspot.com/2010/08/ed-vignettes.html

Patient Privacy and technology

The advent of technology has a lot of advantages. With Yahoo Messenger, Skype and other internet chat/ conferencing services, we can now talk to relatives and friends around the world at no cost at all, or very minimal if any (that's if you have to go to the internet shop and pay per hour). It allows us to rant or praise through blogs, reconnect with friends and make new ones through networking sites, and practice our writing, photo editing, singing, dancing instrument playing talents. Mobile phones are becoming cheaper and more high tech, you can now have a mobile phone, a camera, a videocam, an organizer and an mp3 player all rolled into one teeny tiny phone (and that's just the basics). Technology allows for better documentation of our daily affairs, reunions, vacations, projects, etc. Unfortunately, people have gotten overboard with these new found powers. They air their dirty laundry for everyone to see, mess with videos and pictures to destroy people. Some are premeditated acts, and some just fell victim to ignorance. Sad but true, even nurses have had issues with misuse of technology.

The first sensationalized case in the Philippines involving nurses was the canister videotape scandal where members of the medical team deliberately videotaped (using a cellphone) a procedure on patient who came to the ER with a very humiliating situation. That video found its way to the world wide web. It was very malicious and there's no way it could be argued that it was (the videotaping and the posting) an honest mistake. They thought it was funny, and even funnier if the patient suddenly finds his face plastered on the internet. These were people, who took an oath, to respect the dignity of any patient, regardless of color, race, political, religious or personal beliefs, etc. Shame!

Then this year, the technology bust came through again, this time in the form of the right-of-passage summer ritual among boys - circumcision. It's nothing new, every summer, there's medical missions offering free circumcisions to young boys. It's tradition. What was new was this year, pictures from these activities flooded the internet. Worse, it showed young boys, faces, penises, and all. No effort was done to protect their privacy. Worst of all, members of the medical team were seen smiling and posing over patient's agonized faces, or their private parts being cut (and that oh-so-annoying finger sign!) I doubt one will argue the "free" gave them the right to do whatever they please. It wasn't that at all. It was ignorance, and maybe complacency. After all, it was a good deed, a medical mission. Surely, anyone would be excited to share in someone's being hero for the day....right? Pictures started being shared and perused by friends, friends' friends, and so on and so forth. Pictures were re-tweeted, side shows became available on youtube. And then someone cried FOUL!

All of a sudden, Filipino nurses and doctors are being called pedophiles, exhibitionists etc. We've been branded! There's even a facebook page about it. You should see what's being said about us over there. It's unfair to be branded and generalized, it's true. But what's even unfair, is that the patients' rights to privacy and confidentiality were again violated, our oath to protect was disregarded. Seems to me like that oath isn't worth squat.

We can blame technology but I think that technology has helped us (in a twisted sense) realize that in every action that we do, we always need to look at it 360 degrees. Specially if it involves patient care. The patient always come first. Boohoo, You can't post pictures of the excitement, or need to take time blurring patients' faces. But remember, you took an oath. Better serve up.

what if??

As a nurse, it's all part of our job to render health teachings to our clients. What to do, what to eat and drink. While doctors were the one whose explaining to them their medical status or medical condition. These were the routines were used to do inside the hospital.


But what if one day, you are the one whose hospitalized? You are the one whose lying on the hospital bed. You'll be the patient taken good care by others. Are you ready to listen? Are you ready to accept the findings? Are yo ready to face death?



Been asking this question inside my mind. Working inside a hospital, death is inevitable.





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dhee, r.n.

More Than Words

Hello dear nurses,

I got a call recently from a client who was desperately seeking support for a nurse accused of misconduct and facing losing her right to practice as a nurse in Ireland.

When first hearing about the case, I asked a lot of questions and it seemed that communication difficulties were among the issues that patients had complained of about this nurse.

When I sat down to have a chat with this nurse to see how I could help her, it turned out that she was highly educated and communicated quite well.

One thing stood out about her communication and that was her pitch (how high and low her voice modulated). After reading a little about her mother tongue, it turned out that pitch was used quite differently in her mother tongue than in English. In English, people often raise to a high pitch when annoyed or nervous or anxious but in Hindi, this nurse's native tongue, pitch is used to emphasise content that is important.

It seemed that this nurse was simply transferring a habit from her mother tongue, without realising the effect on her patient.

The episode clearly highlights that communication is so much more than the words we use; it's all about how we use them. Knowing a language is more than having an extensive vocabulary; it's about how we use that vocabulary. The use of pitch (high/low voice range) in English is very different to other langauges and good to know that a raised pitch signals some kind of distress or anxiousness, something that patients are bound to react to as it signals something is not quite right with the speaker.

Have you had miscommunications that were due to something like this nurse's miscommunication - more than words?

Until next time,
Marie