Despite countless warnings, authorities failed to intervene in time to stop Sean Christian Price.

He wasn't just a known criminal; he was a self-declared ticking time bomb, a man who openly admitted his capacity for violence.

From the age of 18, his record was already tainted with disturbing crimes, including at least two brutal rapes. But on March 17, 2015, Price escalated his reign of terror to a level of horror that would forever scar the nation.

The Australian public was left to grapple with the devastating consequences of a justice system that failed to act.

 

In 2004, when Price was 20, he was found guilty of 22 charges, including rape, indecent assault, and threats to kill.

His seven victims included a 13-year-old girl and a mother who was at home with her kids.

After being diagnosed with schizophrenia and psychosis, he was sentenced to just over eight years in hospital detention.

In 2006, while he was a patient at Thomas Embling hospital, he punched Health Minister Tony Abbott in the face.

More violent charges came in 2012, and he was put on a 10-year supervision order.

Over the next two years, he got even more charges for attacking prison officers, damaging their cars, and threatening to kill them. This added less than a year to his prison time.

He was released on bail in October 2014.

In March 2015, Price went on his final rampage.

He murdered Masa Vukotic in Doncaster, robbed a man of his phone in Sunshine, tried to carjack an elderly man, and then raped a woman in a religious bookstore.

 

On 17 March 2015, Masa Vukotic was aged 17 years. Born in Serbia on 1 December 1997. She came to Australia with her parents and siblings in January 2000.

The Vukotic family lived in Doncaster and Masa attended Canterbury Girls Secondary College. The family home was only a short distance from the Koonung Creek reserve, where Masa met her death at the hands of Sean Christian Price.

On 17 March 2015, Price left his home address in the suburb of Albion at about 5.30am and then spent 11 hours travelling around the Melbourne metropolitan area on public transport. During that time he went to Crown Casino, where he apparently gambled away all the money as he had.

According to what Price told police, during that morning he was again experiencing predatory thoughts about robbing and stabbing someone.

At one stage, he went to Hawthorn (an affluent suburb in Melbourne) looking for ‘rich’ people to kill.

Later he went home to Albion and obtained a knife, before returning to the eastern suburbs with killing in mind.

The knife Price obtained was a large kitchen knife, which he placed in a white plastic bag.                                               By this time, he was well and truly determined to murder someone with the knife.                                                              Price even had the foresight to take with him a spare t-shirt because he had every intention to soak the one he had on, with his victims blood.

After travelling around in the way that he had been since early in the morning, at about 6.35pm Price arrived in the Doncaster(East of Melbourne)area by bus.                                                                                                                                           

Masa Vukotic, had been at school on that day. She had come home after school, had a meal with her family and then let her mother know, she was going for a walk. She took her mobile phone and house keys with her.                   That was the last time her family would see their daughter/sister alive.                                                                               

When Masa left her home address, she put in her headphones and was walking in the vicinity of the park in which, she would soon die.                                                                                                                                                                          At this stage Price had arrived by bus and was walking through the same area looking for someone to attack. He saw Masa approaching the park and, according to what Price told the police, ‘This chick was on the other side of the road and she’s coming up, yeah and she’s like started talking to a bird like fucking Snow White. I thought she’s fucking – she’s dressed like fucking all yuppie’.                                                                                          Later on in Price's answers to police he said, ‘And it was like, you know, I was looking, looking and I just thought fuck this, this is the moment. This one just ended up being the one, I just fucking had to kill her, man. I fucking had to kill her.’

-In a mastery of understatement, Price later suggested Masa had ended up in the wrong place.-

Price removed the knife from the bag he was carrying and ran up to Masa with the knife in his hand. He pushed her into the bushes in the park.                                                                      At that stage she pleaded with Price not to hurt her. She told him she would do anything he wanted her to do. Price began stabbing her, ignoring her pleas. He said to the police, ‘I just fucking started ripping and stabbing and fucking just stabbing’. The sound of what Price was doing, particularly Masa's screams, were heard by a couple from a nearby property. Around the same time, a person walked past the immediate vicinity with a dog. Momentarily distracted by the dog Price apparently stopped what he was doing, but since that person and the dog were unaware of what was going on, Price went back into the bush and continued to stab Masa.

As he told police he “went crazy” stabbing her.

Price had a clear and vivid memory of what he did because he told the police that after he returned to where Masa was laying on the ground dying, to continue the attack on her. He was aiming for her ‘lethal regions’ and her ‘vitals’ stabbing her in the heart and ‘on the gut’.                                                                                                    Price was set on making sure she was dead, because if she wasn’t then in his opinion what he was doing was a waste of time.

The couple from the nearby property who had heard the screaming, Mr and Mrs Nguyen, and one other near-by resident decided to investigate.                                          They saw bushes moving abnormally and then they saw Price step out from the bushes with a knife in one hand and a plastic bag in the other.                              Price then fled the scene on foot carrying the knife, the bag and his jacket.

A portion of his escape was captured on a security camera. Price ran in a northerly direction up a street known as Heyington Avenue and entered a front yard in that street, using a tap to remove blood from his hands, arms and face. He also put the T-shirt that he had previously packed over the T-shirt he was already wearing.

Whilst running from the scener, Price asked a person for directions to Doncaster Shopping Centre, and boarded a bus in Doncaster Road at about 7.10pm. 

Price was observed by passengers on the bus to be agitated and nervous, as well as being out of breath and sweating profusely.

This bus took Price to Abbotsford, where he then walked to the Victoria Park railway station and caught a train to Flinders Street. He then caught another train to Sunshine and walked home from there.

Back at the scene in Doncaster, the police attended at approx. 7.00pm following a phone call to 000.                         They were directed to the scene of the murder by those who had seen Price running from the scene.                             By the time they got to where Masa was she was unfortunately almost dead and the attempts made to revive her failed.

She was formally declared as being deceased at 7.20pm.

At about 8.00pm, Masa's mother arrived at the scene to be confronted with the reality that it was her daughter who had been murdered. And so commenced the tide of tragedy Price had created. Masa's mothers screams could be heard from streets away.

The post-mortem later conducted on Masa Vukotic’s body revealed a total of 49 separate injuries. They were on the head, neck, chest and abdomen. She sustained 16 stab injuries, two incised injuries and two sharp force injuries. The stab injury on the right side of her neck had severed the right carotid artery and a stab injury to the lower neck had resulted in substantial blood loss. It was the multiplicity of stab injuries to the neck which caused her death.

 

On the following day,

Price left his home again with the intention of stabbing somebody. He travelled in the vicinity of Newport and Yarraville. Fortunately, he abandoned his original plan and disposed of the knife and other items of clothing. The knife that he had with him was located.

However, the knife which he used to cause the death of Masa has not been recovered.

Price told police that the only reason he did not stab someone on 18 March was because his intended target had been decent to him, giving him $50. Price said this act of kindness was the only thing that saved that person from being stabbed that day.

That night, at the Brimbank Library in Sunshine, Price spent 11 minutes looking at media reports regarding the murder of Masa Vukotic.

The charge of robbery of Toan Nguyen.

This occurred on Thursday 19 March 2015, at about 9.37am, Nguyen was walking to the local library from his home address in Anderson Road, Sunshine. He was aware Price was walking behind him. Price saw him and decided he wanted money and decided to rob him. Nguyen continued to an elevator at the McKay Gardens overpass. Once in the elevator, Price grabbed him around the neck and put him in a headlock demanding that he hand over his wallet and his bag. He punched Nguyen to the head several times and, during the scuffle between them, Nguyen's mobile fell out of his pocket. Price grabbed the phone and, when the elevator reached the overpass, ran from the scene.

Price then went to the Brimbank Library in Sunshine and again used a computer to look at media reports of the murder of Masa. Price was starting to realise he was pretty much done.

 

At around 10:30 a.m., Mr. Hut Vu was parked in front of the Brimbank Library in Sunshine. Sean Price left the library, jumped a fence, and got into the driver's seat of Mr. Vu’s car, which had the keys in the ignition. Mr. Vu rushed to the driver's side, punched Price in the face, and grabbed the keys to stop him from stealing the car. As Mr. Vu yelled for help, Price decided to leave the scene.

Price's rampage of mass destruction, heart-break and turmoil was finally coming to a crescendo.. unfortunately one more victim had to endure a terrifying and senseless attack before Price would be captured...

The sexual assault of *BC*

Price raped BC because he knew it was only a matter of time, before he would be arrested for the murder of Masa Vukotic, and he knew he would be sentenced to life in prison.                                                                                              , The depraved degenerate, Price, wanted some kind of sexual gratification before getting caught. 

Price’s first target was a woman working in a video store in West Melbourne. He stayed in that store for about 25 minutes, but decided to leave because there were other customers around.

He then went next door to the religious bookstore.

Bc was an employee at this store.

Price started a conversation with BC asking where the bibles were. She directed him to the back of the store. Later, Price returned to the counter and asked about books on “scientific evidence of God.” BC left the counter to help him again, taking him to a back corner that was out of sight from the front of the store...                        Taking advantage of the isolated spot, Price grabbed BC from behind, covered her mouth to silence her screams, and forced her to the ground. He choked her and then sexually assaulted her, all while taunting her with the words, “Where’s your Jesus now?”                                              In his interview, Price later described her “stupid, religious comments” during the attack.

BC fought back by biting, pinching, scratching, and trying to gouge his eyes. She even pushed her fingers into his mouth. Her co-worker, who heard her calls for help, ran over, while a man nearby also responded. The man found Price attacking BC and told him to stop. Price stood up, yelled “F*** off dog,” and ran for the exit. Other customers tried to block him, but Price punched one of them, knocking him down, and escaped.

BC was left with multiple bruises and scratches on her head, face, neck, shoulders, hips, and back. Price left the scene, not knowing if she had survived. He later asked police if she was still alive.

By the next day, 19 March 2015, Price’s case manager, Igor Tomic, saw a photo of the murder suspect and recognised it as Price. Later that day, at 11:26 a.m., Price went to the Sunshine Corrections Office. Tomic contacted the police,

arrested Price and later charged him. 

 

To be continued.....