Woman warned over her driving in weeks before crash that killed four

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A magistrate urged a woman to drive responsibly just weeks before her car smashed into a tree, killing her and three teenagers near Hamilton in Victoria’s south-west.

Alicia Montebello, 31, was warned in Warrnambool Magistrates’ Court in April after she pleaded guilty to stalking teenage sisters Megan and Jorja Fox, who were also in the car on May 27. Megan died in the crash, but Jorja survived despite life-threatening injuries.

Alicia Montebello was urged by a magistrate to drive safely weeks before the deadly crash.

Police say they do not know yet whether Montebello was behind the wheel of her red Toyota Corolla when it smashed into a tree off Wannon-Nigretta Falls Road, in Bochara.

Police are investigating the cause of the crash.

The Age can reveal Montebello also pleaded guilty to wilfully damaging Branxholme Recreation Reserve in Hamilton six weeks before the fatal crash, after she was caught ripping up the oval’s turf doing burnouts in February.

“In terms of driving behaviours, make sure they are responsible,” magistrate Franz Holzer told Montebello at the hearing on April 14, when he decided not to restrict her licence.

Police officers with the wrecked car the day after the crash.Credit: Nicole Cleary

“In terms of the friendship, be careful about that, that’s all I’ll say. The reality is that has to be a reciprocated arrangement and if that was something other than that, that would be most unfortunate.”

In the weeks after the magistrate’s warning, Montebello’s car veered off the road and slammed into a tree. Police believe the car was driven at “extremely high speed” along the stretch of country road.

Montebello, Megan, Joshua Elmes, 15, and Lucus Garzoli, 14, were killed in the crash. Jorja, the sole survivor of the crash, was transported to The Alfred hospital in a critical condition. The 17-year-old has been discharged from hospital.

Alicia Montebello moved to Hamilton from South Australia in late 2022.Credit: Facebook

In a short mobile phone video uploaded to Snapchat hours before the crash, the car is seen travelling along a narrow road at speed, while music blared in the background.

In the footage, a boy asks what speed the car is driving before a woman responds: “130.”

Joshua’s father, Matthew Elmes, had previously asked his son not to get into Montebello’s car because he said the group had been “pushing the boundaries too much, driving too fast”.

“Eventually, Josh stopped hopping in the car for the last four months, as far as we know. I might not have even found out he was in the car if they didn’t have the accident,” Elmes said.

The tragedy left the small community of Hamilton reeling and raised questions about Montebello’s relationship with the teenagers. A memorial near the crash honouring Montebello was vandalised, which prompted her mother, Debbie Montebello, to issue an emotional plea on social media.

“I am begging the people of Hamilton to stop trashing our daughter [and] sister’s memorial site. It’s killing us. We know you are all angry at Alicia. But please stop. We are grieving [and] hurting too,” she wrote alongside an image of a plaque honouring her daughter nailed to a tree.

The April 14 court hearing was told Montebello had moved to Hamilton from South Australia at the end of last year, seeking to start fresh after an emotionally and physically abusive long-term relationship that had left her socially isolated in Adelaide.

Before the deadly crash, she was living in a caravan park in Hamilton, after her brother asked her to move out of his home following the birth of his second child.

Montebello’s lawyer told the court Montebello met 17-year-old Jorja through her job at the local Coles and the pair “hit it off” and became best friends. In social media posts, Montebello regularly referred to Jorja as her best friend and “little one”.

“It’s been a long time since she’s had something like that,” her lawyer told the court in April.

“There’s no indication that Jorja or Megan were in her company or in her car under duress or anything like that. In fact, their mother picks them up at midnight, and they sneak out again and go back to Ms Montebello’s.”

But the court also heard Montebello had sent Jorja more than two dozen text messages over 30 hours despite warnings to stay away from the sisters, and was found driving with both girls in the car in April when pulled over by police.

Joshua Elmes was one of four people killed in a road crash near Hamilton on May 27.Credit: Facebook

Holzer sentenced Montebello to a $700 fine without conviction for one count of causing damage wilfully, two counts of stalking and four counts of breaching bail conditions.

Tanya Broadbent, a close friend of Montebello who took her in while the latter had endured a rough patch in 2015, told The Age days after the crash that Montebello was a caring friend who longed to be a part of something.

“I knew that she was friends with some younger kids and as much as I wished she’d have friends more her own age, Alicia thrived on feeling wanted and feeling like she was included,” Broadbent told The Age.

Lucus Garzoli, 14, was killed in the crash.

“She just craved to be loved and [have] attention, not attention in a bad way but attention as in feeling wanted and needed. Those girls did it for her.”

Broadbent said Montebello had struggled with depression after experiencing family problems and moved to country Victoria in the hope of putting her past behind her.

“She wanted to have a family, she wanted to do all the things that everybody else wants to do,” Broadbent said. “She didn’t have a death wish or anything like that. She was looking for that place where she just belonged.”

The last time Broadbent spoke to Montebello was a few days before her death. They spoke about Broadbent’s pets and the Fast & Furious movies, which Montebello had just watched.

Montebello’s funeral was held in South Australia last Thursday.

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