A British woman and a Nepalese man found dead in an inner Sydney apartment in a suspected murder-suicide have been named.
The bodies of Amelia Blake, 22, and Brazil Gurung, who is believed to have been her boyfriend and was in his 30s, were discovered at a flat in King Street, Newtown, on Friday afternoon after concerns were raised for the pair’s welfare.
Blake had been in Australia for eight months. She spent most of her time in Australia working on a farm in Victoria and had planned to head to Tasmania after a trip to Vietnam, News Corp Australia reported.
The bodies were discovered by the flat’s landlord, who had come to pick up his mail.
Friends in the UK have written on social media after learning of Blake’s death.
“We couldn’t believe the news ... absolutely devastating and just can’t get our head around it,” Ellie Mackness wrote on Facebook on Thursday. “She was the most incredible girl.”
Rhys James Collington said he and Blake had been best friends since they were four years old.
“This has broken my heart into a million pieces ... it’s almost unimaginable that I’ll never see you again, my dear friend,” he wrote on Facebook.
Gurung was employed at the Fogo Brazilia Churrasco restaurant as a chef for two years. The owner of the restaurant, Ian Dresner, told the ABC that staff were in shock after hearing the news about their former colleague.
Dresner described Gurung as a “model employee” who “worked hard, worked long hours” and was polite.
New South Wales police said postmortem examinations were conducted on the two bodies and would form part of the brief to the coroner.
Detectives have asked anyone with information to come forward.
The UK’s foreign office confirmed it was providing support to Blake’s family.
“Our staff are in contact with the New South Wales police,” a spokesman said.
A strikeforce was established to investigate the circumstances of their deaths with a murder-suicide a line of inquiry being investigated, a NSW police spokeswoman said on Sunday.
Blake’s family are reportedly on their way to Sydney from England.
• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. In the UK Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. Other international suicide helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org
