What we know about the alleged domestic violence murder of Jana Armstrong
By Cindy Wockner and Grace Nakamura, ABC News
Faith Isaacs felt like something was not right as she shared brunch with her older sister Jana Armstrong.
It was the last time Isaacs saw the 30-year-old mother alive.
“Now that I am looking back there might have been a couple of things that weren’t right,” she said.
The siblings talked daily, a closeness forged by the loss of their parents several years ago.
“We were more than just sisters. We were best friends,” Isaacs said.
The sisters had brunch on Tuesday 7 July. Later that day police allege Dharminder Singh murdered Armstrong.
An abandoned car
Isaacs messaged her sister the next day and received a response she now believes may not have been sent by Armstrong.
At 6am on 8 July, Armstrong’s car was found abandoned in the middle of the street, 500 metres down the road from her house in the Toowoomba suburb of Newtown.
Her baby boy, who she was still breastfeeding, was inside the house with her former partner, the man now charged with her alleged murder. Armstrong was nowhere to be found.
Isaacs said she felt something was desperately wrong because there was no way her sister would have left her little boy.
Armstrong was on maternity leave. She worked as a support worker and her clients are devastated by her loss.
Armstrong was due to go back to work in two months, when her son was six months old.
She did not want to, but her family had assured her they would help with the juggle.
Missing person report
A missing person report was circulated on Wednesday, 8 July.
By Thursday afternoon Armstong had still not been found.
Police and SES personnel searched Black Gully Reserve, at the end of the street where her car was found, and forensic officers were at her home.
By Friday, Armstrong’s family feared she had died. Police and the SES searched along Tabletop Drive at Rangeville.
Later that day police held a press conference and released CCTV footage of Armsrong at the cafe where she met her sister for brunch.
They revealed that her 2019 white Hyundai Kona was believed to have been driven around several locations on the outer edge of Toowoomba on the evening of 7 July, after she was last seen alive.
These included Tabletop Drive, Rangeville between 9 and 10pm, Preston Road, Preston at about 10pm and Charker Street in Darling Heights at 10.15pm.
It was back at her Newtown Street between 3am and 5am on 8 July.
Police called for anyone with footage of the car to come forward.
Isaacs said hope was fading by Saturday morning.
Her family, friends, work colleagues and strangers, gathered at Preston, on Toowoomba’s south-eastern side, near one of the locations where her car had been spotted.
They walked through the bushland, desperate for clues, but did not find anything.
Undeterred, they organised another search for the next day.
Hunters discover body
The search was not needed. Two men out pig hunting found her body after their dogs beckoned them.
Armstrong was wearing the same clothes seen on the CCTV footage from the cafe.
At 11.20pm on Saturday a crime scene was established.
By 4.23am on Sunday a team of police was knocking on a door at an address in West Street, Harristown, a few kilometres south-west of Toowoomba’s CBD.
Singh was asleep on a mattress on the floor, with a chair serving as a bedside table. He was handcuffed and placed under arrest.
At 5am, detectives visited Faith and Michael Isaacs’s home.
On Monday, Singh, a 48-year-old taxi driver, appeared in Toowoomba Magistrates Court charged with her murder (domestic violence offence) and the arson of her car.
The Isaacs and Armstrong’s brother, Sam Davison, were sitting in the front row of the tiny public gallery when Singh’s hunched image appeared on a video screen.
In Isaacs’s arms was her sister’s four-month-old baby, dressed in a blue playsuit.
Singh intermittently put his head on a desk in front of him, then sat up, then put his head down again.
It was a short appearance and he was not required to say much. Singh cannot apply for bail in the magistrates’ court because he is on a murder charge. To seek bail, he would need to go to the Supreme Court.
Community raises funds
Armstrong was born and grew up in Toowoomba. She went to school in the regional town and played basketball for the Saints.
An ankle injury curtailed her playing days and she went on to coach until a knee injury brought that to an end.
On Wednesday at 6pm in Toowoomba, Armstrong’s team will take to the court for a minute of silence.
Her death has sparked an outpouring of grief in the community. About AUD$60,000 has been donated via an online fundraiser and people are donating baby goods to a local charity.
Isaacs said her older sister supported her through the loss of her own baby girl, Lehara, in May after an emergency caesarean and placental abruption.
She said she planned to care for her sister’s baby as if he was her own.
“It’s like we’ve swapped babies,” Isaacs said.
“She’s holding my baby and I’m holding hers.”
Armstrong will be laid to rest with her parents and grandmother.
Where to get help:
- Need to Talk? Free call or text 1737 any time to speak to a trained counsellor, for any reason
- Lifeline: 0800 543 354 or text HELP to 4357
- Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 / 0508 TAUTOKO. This is a service for people who may be thinking about suicide, or those who are concerned about family or friends
- Depression Helpline: 0800 111 757 or text 4202
- Samaritans: 0800 726 666
- Youthline: 0800 376 633 or text 234 or email talk@youthline.co.nz
- What’s Up: 0800 WHATSUP / 0800 9428 787. This is free counselling for 5 to 19-year-olds
- Asian Family Services: 0800 862 342 or text 832. Languages spoken: Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Hindi, and English.
- Victim Support 0800 842 846.
- Rural Support Trust Helpline: 0800 787 254
- Healthline: 0800 611 116
- Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155
- OUTLine: 0800 688 5463
- Aoake te Rā bereaved by suicide service: or call 0800 000 053
If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
Family Violence
- Women’s Refuge: 0800 733 843.
- It’s Not OK 0800 456 450.
- Shine: 0508 744 633.
- Victim Support: 0800 842 846.
- HELP Call 24/7 (Auckland): 09 623 1700, (Wellington): 04 801 6655.
- The National Network of Family Violence Services NZ has information on specialist family violence agencies.
- ABC