A real estate agent who unknowingly encountered John Edwards years before he murdered his children was immediately suspicious after his creepy behaviour.
A real estate agent who unknowingly showed John Edwards through his estranged daughterтАЩs open house said he had a тАЬgut feelingтАЭ about a suspicious pair who claimed to be father and son.
The chilling incident occurred in 2011 after Edwards used private investigators to track his adult daughter down and then stalked her, leading her to apply for an apprehended violence order.
Seven years later, Edwards shot dead his two youngest children, Jack, 15, and Jennifer, 13, before killing himself on July 5, 2018. Their mother, Olga, took her own life five months later.
An inquest last year probed how Edwards was able to get a gun licence despite a 24-year recorded history of domestic violence inflicted on his seven former partners and 10 children.
Among them is JC, who cannot be named by court order and had not seen her father in 15 years when he began to stalk her in 2011.
The year before, Edwards hired Sydney Private Investigations to track JC down, and in November 2010 the agency sent him details about JC and her husband, including their address.
Real estate agent Steven Kourdis was working for North Sydney agency McConnell Bourn in May 2011 when JCтАЩs house came across his desk for sale.
At the open house, two potential buyers stood out to him, a father and son who gave the names тАЬRonтАЭ and тАЬSteveтАЭ.
In a 2018 statement, Mr Kourdis told police of how the younger man captured his and his colleagueтАЩs attention while тАЬRonтАЭ wandered off into the house.
тАЬI found him in one of the kidтАЩs bedrooms looking at pictures on the walls. There were school certificates on the wall as well as pictures and other stuff.
тАЬI said, тАШCan I help you there?тАЩ He said, тАШIтАЩm just having a look. ItтАЩs a nice houseтАЩ.тАЭ
Mr Kourdis initially suspected the men were casing the house for a break-in, he said, but concluded it was unlikely due to the high windows.
тАЬWhen I caught the older man looking at the school certificates on the walls I believed that they were casing it for information about a person.
тАЬI canтАЩt put my finger on exactly what made me think that тАж I have years of experience in real estate but they didnтАЩt seem like normal buyers,тАЭ he said. тАЬIt was a gut feel.тАЭ
He later discussed the men with JC, who realised her father had been through her house.
тАЬI canтАЩt even begin to describe how physically ill that made me, on hearing that,тАЭ she told the inquest last year.
Soon after the house inspection JC caught a man trying to slip an envelope under her front door that contained a note from Edwards saying a friend of his would keep tabs on when JC visited Westfield.
Days later, he approached as JC dropped her daughter at preschool. She told him she would take out an AVO and sped away, terrified. When she got home, a note from Edwards was in the letterbox.
Police declined to pursue stalking charges and thought just an AVO would be sufficient as Edwards had тАЬonly made three separate attempts to contactтАЭ JC.
In court, she told the inquest, a prosecutor leaned over and whispered: тАЬHe is your father, canтАЩt you just sort this out among yourselves?тАЭ
The provisional AVO was never finalised as JC and her family moved overseas.
Over 2016 and 2017, state coroner Teresa OтАЩSullivan found, JCтАЩs detailed account in the police online database was ignored by officers who took down OlgaтАЩs complaints of assaults on the children and Edwards stalking her at a yoga class.
It went unnoticed at the gun registry, where staff took a blinkered approach that only finalised AVOs counted.
And it was dismissed by independent childrenтАЩs lawyer Debbie Morton, who said she read EdwardsтАЩs police file before telling a family law judge in December 2016 that she didnтАЩt have тАЬany concernsтАЭ about Jack and Jennifer being at risk from seeing their father.
Years after the open home, Mr Kourdis was shocked to be contacted out of the blue by police investigating Jack and JenniferтАЩs murders.
He now asks sellers if there is anyone he should be aware of before an open home.
тАЬNormally, they give me the name of a neighbour they donтАЩt get along with,тАЭ he said in his statement. тАЬBut sometimes it is a family member.тАЭ
