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In the months before her death, Virginia Giuffre was asking for help.
Her family says those calls went unanswered.
Now, just over a year after Jefferey Epstein’s most prominent abuse survivor died by suicide at her rural West Australian property, her brothers have requested a public inquest and a formal review of police actions they believe failed to protect her.
In letters sent on Wednesday to WA Coroner Rosalinda Fogliani and WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch, Giuffre’s US-based brothers, Sky Roberts and Danny Wilson, said their sister had been “let down” by police responses in the months leading up to her death, and raised concerns about how her domestic violence allegations were handled.
Giuffre died by suicide on April 25, 2025, at her property in Neergabby, an hour’s drive north of Perth, in WA’s Wheatbelt region.
While the family does not dispute their sister took her own life, they argue the circumstances leading up to her death warrant closer scrutiny.
“Our central concern is that Virginia may have been misidentified as a perpetrator,” the family wrote.
The family pointed to an alleged history of domestic violence, including a 2015 incident in Colorado in which Giuffre’s husband Robert Giuffre was convicted of assault-related offences.
At the time of her death, Giuffre was in ongoing divorce proceedings with her Australian husband, with whom she shared three children. She had ongoing health concerns, having undergone extensive surgery to her spine over the years, and employed a carer.
According to her brothers, Giuffre reported an assault that occurred at holiday accommodation in Quindalup, a coastal town 2½ hours’ drive south of Perth, on the night of January 9 and early morning on January 10, 2025.
They said police attended a call-out and Giuffre had visible injuries, but no charges were laid. Robert was served by police with a 72-hour violence restraining order, which protected Giuffre, her brothers said.
On January 14, just after the restraining order expired, Robert Giuffre was granted an interim family violence restraining order in the Perth Magistrates Court against Virginia.
The hearing was undertaken in closed court and ex parte, meaning the other party was not in attendance and the evidence given by the applicant was not required to be tested.
This process with minimal barriers for the applicant was in place to protect vulnerable victims escaping domestic violence situations.
The six-month interim order extended to Giuffre’s youngest children, which meant she could not see them or have any contact and could not enter her Ocean Reef home.
Her family claimed this raised serious questions about how she was characterised in police assessments, and what evidence was presented to the magistrate for them to grant the order.
“We are deeply concerned about how this occurred so soon after she had reported a serious assault, and whether police information sharing, risk assessment, and safeguarding processes adequately protected her,” the brothers’ letter to Fogliani and Blanch states.
The Perth Magistrates Court refused this masthead access to the transcript of the hearing and Robert Giuffre’s family violence application.
Giuffre’s family further claim she repeatedly sought police assistance between January and April 2025, reporting fears for her safety and allegations of coercive control.
In late January, Robert Giuffre was charged with keeping unsecured firearms at the Neergabby property. He was granted a spent conviction in the Joondalup Magistrates Court on February 19, 2025.
In their letter to Blanch, Giuffre’s family requested a formal internal investigation into WA Police decision-making including frontline responses, and the application of family and domestic violence policies.
A national inquiry into the link between domestic violence and suicide is currently being undertaken by the federal government, which will examine systemic issues faced by victims, with public hearings closing last month.
WA Police and the commissioner have been contacted for comment.
Blanch would not tell this masthead whether the case had been referred to the WA Ombudsman of for review under family and domestic violence fatality processes.
In March, the Coroner’s Court of Western Australia confirmed its investigation into Giuffre’s death was ongoing, with no decision yet on whether the matter would proceed to a public inquest or be finalised administratively.
Meanwhile, estate proceedings in the WA Supreme Court, which were due to resume on Thursday, have been adjourned until July.
Giuffre’s two adult sons, Christian, 19, and Noah, 18, are seeking to be appointed administrators on the basis she died without a formal will, arguing in their filings their mother lacked “testamentary capacity” when the document was created.
However, Giuffre’s Perth lawyer, Karrie Louden, and former carer Cheryl Myers have filed a counterclaim alleging she left an informal will and did not want her estranged husband to benefit.
Robert Giuffre has been contacted for comment.
Support is available from Lifeline 13 11 14, and Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636.
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Carla Hildebrandt is a journalist with WAtoday. She previously worked on ABC’s Four Corners and as a court reporter at The Daily Telegraph in Sydney. For secure contact: carlahildebrandt@proton.me.Connect via email.From our partners
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