According to her mum, Ellie Price was known for her "big, kind heart", and was adored by all in her orbit. Perhaps none more so than her son.
According to The Herald Sun, the eight-year-old loved his "beautiful and special" mum, particularly her hugs.
Clearly a close-knit family, it's hardly a surprise that they began to worry when Ellie didn't answer her phone on April 29, 2020.
Her family called again and again — and after five long days of radio silence, they called the police.
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On May 4, authorities attended a welfare check at Ellie's home, where they found the unthinkable.
Ellie was dead, murdered — and her little boy, then just four, was left without a mum.
Ellie's boyfriend, Ricardo Barbaro, had stabbed the young mum six times in the neck and chest. Leaving her for dead after his horrific attack, Ricardo jumped into Ellie's Mercedes Benz and drove off, later dumping the vehicle at a farm in Diggers Rest.
He then hired a van and went on the run, driving through Victoria, NSW and ACT.
Ricardo managed to evade the law for 10 days before the police finally caught him, arresting him on suspicion of murder.
While the now-38-year-old denied the crime, he was convicted of murder by a Supreme Court jury. In November 2024, he was sentenced by Justice Stephen Kaye, who described the killing as a "violent, one-sided attack".
"[Ms Price] was alone, completely defenceless and quite clearly overpowered by you," Justice Kaye told Ricardo at the time of sentencing.
"She was unable to do more to resist you than scratching… with her fingernails.
"Your murderous attack on her was cruel, vicious and entirely merciless."
While he claimed to a psychologist that he had acted out of self defence, after he woke up to find someone attacking him, Justice Kaye said the jury rejected that argument and had instead accepted that Ricardo had killed Ellie.
"You made a conscious decision to take hold of a knife for purpose of venting your rage on her," he said.
"The number and location of the stab wounds... were indisputable evidence that you could only have intended to kill her."
The 38-year-old now faces 28 years behind bars for his brutal murder of the young mum, and will be eligible for parole after 22 years. He has already served more than four years in custody.
But while the judge argued that the sentence was necessary, Ellie's mother, Tracey Gangell disagreed.
"I don't think it's enough," she told reporters outside the courtroom. "[I'm] still distressed. Hurt. Broken."
She continued: "A life for a life — if he can take a life away from someone, his life should be taken away as well.
"He's still breathing, he still gets to see his family — I don't get to see my daughter anymore."
And while Ricardo would have time to enjoy his life if released on parole, Tracey's grandson — Ellie's now-eight-year-old son — has to live the rest of his life without his mother.
"No matter how long he gets, it's not long enough, because my daughter's life has been taken."
While sharing a victim impact statement in court, Tracey said the pain of losing her daughter was indescribable.
"An emptiness you can't fulfil," she told the court. "My life has fallen apart since you left. What parent needs to be writing this? None in the world.
"I don't even go out and see my friends any more… they don't ask any more because they know I would say no."
Ellie grew up in Tasmania, moving to Victoria to work in the equine industry when she was 18. She welcomed her son in 2015, who was just four years old when she died.
Ellie's sister, Danielle, told the court that her nephew remained traumatised for years after his mother's death.
"It's so hard to explain to him, so I tell him the truth," she shared in a victim impact statement. "He wants to know, why did he kill her? How did he kill her?
"[He] asked us if we could go and dig her up, and bring her back because he misses his mum so much. His only wish in the world is to have his mum back.
"When we go to Ellie's grave, he lays down to be near her. He always says how much he needs his mother."
Feature Image: Facebook.