What a Perth mum's death tells us about the city's darkest corners

The Age

4 days ago

Little is known about the life of Nardia Spice.
More is known about the 40-year-old's bleak, violent death in a dog park on Perth's far south-eastern fringe – and there is a wealth of data about the factors that led to it.
One of the few things known about her life is that she mothered six children, and was described as a fundamentally sweet person.
On the steps of Western Australia's Supreme Court – where the last of those responsible for her death in the foothills suburb of Byford was sentenced on Thursday – her father had described her as 'kind'.
'She went through a lot,' he said.
'We tried to be there for her.'
Another friend described her as 'a very nice person … a 'mum' to a lot of us.'
Even the person eventually convicted over helping cover up her murder called her 'kind and generous'.
So how did she end up attacking a woman who'd taken her in from the streets, pushing her over, tying her hands, spitting at her, humiliating her, threatening her then stealing her car?
Spice was one of the one in five Western Australians to use illicit drugs: the methylamphetamine deemed 'very easy' to buy in Perth in multiple forms, as well as large quantities of cannabis.
Her friends were also among these users, and just before her death, she and housemate Jesse Desmond Jones got kicked out of the house they were staying in.
Jones' lawyer Chris Townsend said they'd only known each other a month when they found themselves two of the 4000 frequent drug users in WA experiencing homelessness. Jesse Jones being a trans person placed her at even higher risk.
But someone took them in – Eve Marsh, another drug user, whose childhood was marred with trauma and disconnection.
She'd turned to her latest partner Zachariah Brough for comfort, but she soon realised he too had a history of domestic violence.
Regardless, Spice and Jones moved into Marsh's home in Brookdale with her and her now ex-boyfriend until they found somewhere else to live.
In this south-eastern suburb, the average household income in 2021 was about $1300 - about $400 less than Perth's average. About a third of the population is unemployed.
Despite the lifeline, despite being this person thought of as kind, nice and motherly, Spice's desperation and addiction took over. She became one of the 70 per cent of drug users appearing before the WA courts who have become violent.
She and Jesse Jones wanted to head to the eastern states, but lacked money and transport. Spice turned on Eve Marsh, who had taken them in, and attacked her in the manner described above.
All the while, Marsh alleged, her former partner Zachariah Brough watched on and laughed.
Spice and Jones then stole Marsh's Ford Territory and drove away to their planned new future away from Perth.
But another fate was being decided for Spice.
A living-room revenge plot
Marsh phoned Brough and told him about the theft.
Marsh and Brough phoned a friend of a friend, Ziggy Vanags, who sat with them in the Brookdale living room and discussed what to do about her betrayal.
What made Brough madder than the attack on his ex was that Spice had stolen his tools along with the car, it was revealed in court.
'Together you formed a common intention to find Ms Spice and recover those items, during which it was agreed that Ms Spice would be seriously assaulted,' Justice Amanda Forrester said in her sentencing remarks.
On September 22, 2022, Brough set the trap.
'You phoned Ms Spice and left a voicemail saying that you had been able to get some drugs and were heading to see her,' court documents said.
Marsh later conceded she knew Nardia Spice had feelings for Brough, setting up Spice to become one of the at least 31 per cent of West Australians who were in 2022 willing to engage in risky behaviour such as exchanging sex for money or drugs.
Nardia Spice and Jesse Jones met Brough and drove to park in the dirt beside a Byford dog park.
Vanags and Marsh tailed them.
Jones stayed in the stolen car, eventually falling asleep as Spice and Brough had sex in his Holden Commodore.
Just after 4am, Spice too began to fall asleep as text messages flew.
'Be ready in 20. Okay. Going to hit her,' Brough messaged.
'They asleep?,' Marsh wrote.
'Not Nadia [sic]. Almost, though,' he replied.
Sometime between 4.25 and 4.39 am, the judge's sentencing remarks said, Brough got out of the Commodore, grabbed a pipe wrench from the back of the car and struck Spice to the back of her head once.
As her tiny 49-kilogram body crumpled to the ground she became one of more than half of the homeless West Australians who fall victim to violence, with the drug-addicted also 1.8 times more likely to be seriously assaulted.
Over the next few hours, Brough tied her hands together, wrapped her in a blanket and with the help of Vanags, put her in the boot of the Commodore.
Jones woke up, and she alleged she was told to help them hide their crime.
The group drove Spice to Perth's scrubby bushland, and dumped her in isolated bush in Whitby, about 10 minutes' drive further south.
Prosecutors were unable to say whether she was still alive at the time.
Bleach, fire and the weir
The attempted cover-up took days.
They returned to the scene where Bough used bleach to erase any sign of himself on her body, and moved her again deeper into forest in the southern hills of Jarrahdale.
They cleaned the wrench and threw their bag into Mundaring Weir in the northern hills.
They torched the stolen car, poured more bleach on bloodstains in the dirt car park and even rehomed Spice's dog.
But about 10 days later Spice's former housemate reported her missing.
She became one of the 1800 missing persons reports lodged annually in WA.
The actual figure is again likely much higher, as people who live in lower socio-economic areas and suffering from drug addiction often go missing unreported.
On October 7, her shallow grave was found.
She became one of 42 homicides in Western Australia in 2022, and one of the 30 per cent of them that were women.
Tales of tragedy
The four responsible for Nardia Spice's death have their own troubling stories.
Vanag's childhood was marked by transience, unpredictability, abandonment and his mother's own drug abuse. He had very few friends, and used drugs as a way to make connections.
Brough started using methylamphetamine at just 17, and had a family life he claimed was marked by mental abuse. He was estranged from his father when young, was unemployed, and in and out of jail for petty crimes.
He physically and mentally abused Eve Marsh, a young mother herself and desperate to create a stable family after her father was jailed while she was young. Marsh told the court her grandmother used to take her to visit her own father in prison. Now, the same grandmother takes Marsh's own daughter to see her in prison.
Jesse Jones also had a life marked by drug abuse and homelessness. She struggled with suicidal ideation for most of her life, and was a prolific cannabis smoker. Despite having transitioned genders she spent more than 800 days in the male-only Hakea Prison while awaiting Thursday's sentencing.
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'Everybody in this matter has had, quite frankly, a quite tragic upbringing,' Justice Forrester said in giving Jones a two-year suspended sentence on top of the time already served.
She also sentenced Eve Marsh to eight years' jail, with eligibility for parole in six.
Earlier this month, Ziggy Vanag was sentenced to seven years' jail, eligible for parole in five.
Brough was in March sentenced to life imprisonment.
The cycle continues, with one of Spice's six children in jail.
The whereabouts of the other five are unknown.