Colleen Rebelo was a 58-year-old mother from Perth, Australia who was murdered by her own son in May 2020. Her son Andre killed her to collect over one million dollars in life insurance money that he had fraudulently taken out in her name just days before her death.
Colleen was a single mom who raised four kids mostly on her own after going through a rough divorce. Her children were Julian, Andre, Monique, and Fabian.
By 2020, all of them were adults. Julian had moved away from Perth. Monique was living at home temporarily while she trained to become a paramedic. Fabian was 19 and still lived with his mom. Andre lived nearby with his girlfriend Gracie Piscopo and their two-year-old son.
With her kids all grown up, Colleen finally had time to focus on herself. She went back to school and enrolled in a master’s program at Murdoch University. She also started a new job at the health department in May 2020.
She was really excited about this new chapter in her life. Colleen was pretty healthy for her age. She exercised a lot and took good care of herself. She had a couple of minor health issues like low bone density and a thyroid condition, but nothing serious at all.
Andre presented himself to the world as a successful cryptocurrency trader. He and Gracie seemed to have this perfect, fancy life. Gracie was an influencer with over a million followers on Instagram.
Their social media showed designer clothes, expensive trips, a big fancy house, and a Range Rover. Andre acted like he was Gracie’s business manager. They looked like they had everything figured out.
But behind all those pretty pictures, things were not good at all. Andre was not actually making money from crypto. Reports said the most he ever made was about 22 dollars. Gracie was the one actually bringing in money through her influencer work.
She made thousands per Instagram post and even got brand deals. The problem was they were spending way more than they earned. Together, they had racked up 112,000 dollars in debt. They had no real assets. Debt collectors were starting to come after them.
Andre told Gracie that they were about to come into a lot of money soon. He did not tell her where this money would come from. What he was actually planning was horrible.
In the weeks and months before May 2020, Andre started researching some very suspicious things online. He searched for stuff like “coroner’s aneurysm causes.” He tried to delete his search history, but investigators were later able to recover it.
This showed that he might have been planning what he did for about five months before it happened.
Less than one week before May 25, 2020, Andre took out three life insurance policies using his mother’s name. She had no idea about any of this. The policies added up to more than one million dollars. He made himself the only person who would get the money if she died.
May 25, 2020 started like any normal day. That morning at 10 o’clock, Colleen drove Fabian to his job at a supermarket. She was supposed to pick him up when his shift ended at 2 in the afternoon.
That same morning, Andre had plans to get lunch with Gracie and some of her cousins who were visiting. But sometime in the late morning, he just disappeared. He did not tell anyone where he was going.
Between 11:10 and 11:34, Gracie tried calling him twelve times. She sent him a bunch of angry text messages asking where he was. He did not answer any of them.
During this time when nobody could reach him, his phone connected to a cell tower right near his mom’s house. His white Range Rover was also seen parked outside her home. Colleen’s sister happened to drive by and remembered seeing his car there.
Around 12:30, Andre finally used his phone. He texted his mom asking if she could watch his son that day or the next day because he had to run errands. This text was sent after investigators believe she was already dead. He was trying to make it look like he thought she was still alive.
A little while later, Andre just showed up at home acting totally normal. He casually asked Gracie and her cousin where they wanted to eat lunch. He acted like nothing weird had happened at all.
When 2 o’clock came, Colleen never showed up to pick up Fabian from work. This was really unlike her. She always showed up for her kids. Fabian tried calling and texting her over and over, but she never responded. So he decided to walk home instead.
When Fabian got to the house, he could hear the shower running. He called out for his mom, but nobody answered. He knocked on the bathroom door thinking maybe she just could not hear him because of the water. Still nothing.
He decided to open the door himself. That is when he found his mother collapsed in the shower. She was not responsive.
Fabian immediately called emergency services and tried to do CPR. But it was too late. Colleen was gone.
The way her body was found raised a lot of questions. She was still wearing all her jewelry. Her hair was still up in a ponytail. There was no towel or bath mat outside the shower like there would be if she was actually planning to take a shower.
She had bruises on her hands, arms, shin, and knee. There were also blood spots in her eyes, which can happen when someone is suffocated.
At first, the coroner could not figure out exactly how she died. They ended up ruling it as natural causes because they could not find a definite answer. Her body was cremated even though she had wanted to be buried.
After Colleen died, Andre started acting really weird. He took her driver’s license without telling his siblings. He had her mail sent to his house even though Monique and Fabian still lived at her place.
Julian, who was in charge of handling their mom’s estate, noticed Andre was doing stuff that was not his job to do. This was also strange because Andre being helpful was not really normal for him.
Then Andre started trying to get the insurance money. This is where he really messed up.
When the insurance companies asked for medical records, Andre made a fake email pretending to be his mom’s psychologist. He even used some kind of AI voice generator to leave a voicemail pretending to be this psychologist.
He literally searched online for “fake voice generator” and “best online deep fake voice.” Investigators found these searches later.
The insurance company also wanted a death certificate. When Andre found out it could take nine months to get one, he just made his own. He wrote down that his mom died from a brain aneurysm, which he totally made up. He forged the coroner’s signature on it.
He also forged his mom’s will and the coroner’s report. In the fake will, he made himself the only person who would inherit anything. His three siblings would get nothing.
Andre kept calling the coroner’s office pretending to be his brother Julian so he could get updates on the autopsy.
One of the insurance companies got suspicious. A company that held a 500,000 dollar policy noticed that things were not adding up. They decided to tell the police about it.
In October 2020, police brought Andre and all his siblings in for questioning. It was super clear that Julian, Monique, and Fabian had no clue what their brother had been doing. That same day, Andre was arrested for fraud.
Police searched his house and his mom’s house. They took a bunch of electronic devices and found all the evidence of his searches and what he had done.
Investigators also put listening devices in Andre’s bedroom and living room. They recorded conversations between him and Gracie. In these recordings, Gracie sounded shocked and mad. She said things like “What have you done?” This proved she had nothing to do with any of it.
By November 2022, police had enough evidence to arrest Andre for murder. He was charged with first-degree murder and was not allowed to post bail.
His trial started in November 2024. Right before it began, he admitted to the fraud charges but said he did not kill his mom.
Andre testified and tried to explain everything away. He said his mom asked him to help her get life insurance because he was good with technology. He said he forged all the documents after she died because he thought she killed herself and he wanted to make sure his siblings got the money.
None of this made sense though. He had made himself the only person who would get the money. He never told his siblings about any of the policies. He never mentioned being at his mom’s house the day she died until there was proof he was there.
Doctors testified that Colleen was healthy. The defense tried to say she could have died from a heart problem, but the coroner could not rule out that she was murdered. The bruises and blood spots in her eyes were never explained.
Gracie also testified. She said Andre told her he was running errands that morning and had to drop off some clothes at his mom’s house. She said he seemed totally normal that day.
After three weeks, the jury found Andre guilty of first-degree murder. He barely showed any emotion when they announced the verdict. In April 2025, he was sentenced to life in prison. He might be able to get parole after 25 years. None of his siblings came to watch the sentencing.
