Woman found dead in North Bondi apartment identified as 19-year-old mum Yolonda Mumbulla

Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this story contains the name and image of a deceased Indigenous person.

Friends and family of the 19-year-old found dead in an apartment at North Bondi are grieving the loss of a young mum who was “full of joy” and was “always there to help anyone”.

Police and paramedics found the body of Yolonda Mumbulla at a unit on Hardy Street in North Bondi at about 9.20am on Tuesday after receiving reports a woman had been found unresponsive.

It is understood her 32-year-old partner Aaron Carey was at the apartment when emergency services arrived. He was arrested at the house on an unrelated outstanding warrant and transported to Waverley Police Station.

On Wednesday, he was charged with a suite of offences including larceny, three counts of entering a vehicle or boat without consent, destroying or damaging property, resisting a police officer in the execution of duty, and possessing suspected stolen goods.

He was refused bail to appear before Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday.

Investigations into Ms Mumbella’s death continue, and NSW Police said detectives were looking into several lines of inquiry, “including misadventure”.

No charges have been laid over her death.

On Tuesday night, a GoFundMe page was opened to raise money for Ms Mumbulla’s “final journey” and for her loved ones “to lay her to rest”.

“With such sad and sudden news, we ask for your help in giving her a beautiful send-off,” friend Alyah Pera, who started the fundraiser, wrote.

“Yolonda always had such an uplifting spirit, she was funny, full of joy and she was always there to help anyone.”

Friends took to social media to share their own heartbreak over the death of their “sis”.

Dozens of Macarthur and Liverpool locals from southwest Sydney also sent their condolences to Ms Mumbulla’s “local family” in a community Facebook group.

On Wednesday, her father Derek Mumbler told The Daily Telegraph he was completely “cut up” after losing his “beautiful daughter”.

“I’m so lost,” he told the newspaper.

Mr Mumbler said he had a “beautiful relationship” with his youngest daughter, who would frequently travel between his home in Macquarie Fields and the North Bondi apartment complex.

He said his daughter descends from the Yuin and Yaegl tribes — from the South Coast and Northern Rivers regions of NSW, respectively — and graduated from James Meehan High School in Macquarie Fields in year 11.

Mr Mumbler said detectives came to his home on Tuesday morning to tell him his daughter’s body had been found, news he was finding “hard to process”.

“I miss my daughter,” he said. “I miss her.”

Mr Mumbler told The Daily Telegraph he didn’t know 32-year-old Carey “from a bar of soap”.

This is despite the 32-year-old posting a glowing declaration of love for Ms Mumbulla to social media in January 2023, when the pair went “Facebook official”.

In the comments of the post, Carey thanked the teenager for “starting a family” with him, writing it “means the world”.

“I’m the luckiest guy ever to have you in my life yolonda (sic.) you make me the happiest man ever,” he wrote.

“I love you so much baby can’t wait to have this Baby with you I no (sic.) you are happy to (sic.) xx”

Bracha Kadoury, who lives across from the apartment complex, said police had cordoned off Hardy St for a few hours on Tuesday morning.

Ms Kadoury told The Nightly officers often attended the apartment complex and said she was shocked to learn a young woman had died.

Ms Kadoury said she was unsettled by the death and things had felt off since the Bondi Junction massacre, which claimed the lives of six innocent people, just weeks earlier.

“It feels a bit like what’s happening to this town?,” she told The Nightly.

“We were actually discussing it, me and the kids. There’s tension in the air I think, something’s around. People are being a bit agitated and violent, kind of on the edge a bit. Hopefully, things will be taken care of and get back to normal.”

Following inquiries after 32-year-old Carey’s arrest on Tuesday, police searched an address on Flood Street, Bondi — 3km away from the crime scene — where they seized 1g of meth and cannabis.

A 34-year-old man was arrested at that address and charged with two counts of possessing a prohibited drug. He was issued a field court attendance to appear at Waverley Local Court next month.

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