Arabic version: وفاة إيلين جي تهزّ شمال تسمانيا

According to ABC News, the death of Elaine Gee and the stabbing of another woman in northern Tasmania are expected to send “ripples” through the community. Gee, 39, died in hospital days after a head-on crash on the West Tamar Highway at Legana. The 42-year-old male driver of the other vehicle also died.

Tasmania Police said the man had stabbed his partner of six months, a woman in her 40s, multiple times at a house in nearby Exeter shortly before the crash. Police said he had been seen driving erratically. The woman, who was visiting Tasmania from Perth with two of her children, is in a stable condition at Launceston General Hospital. The children were present at the house but did not directly witness the incident, police said.

Gee, a mother of two boys, was returning home from a nursing shift at Launceston General Hospital when she was killed. Her husband, Rodney Gee, described her as his “best friend” in a social media post. Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation secretary Emily Shepherd said hospital staff were in shock, while Premier Jeremy Rockliff said Gee’s two decades of service would not be forgotten. An online fundraiser for her family has raised more than $150,000.

Alina Thomas, chief executive of family violence support service Engender Equality, said the incidents would be distressing for people experiencing or who have experienced family violence. She called for greater investment in services, saying about 200 victim survivors in southern Tasmania were on a waiting list that could last three years. Tasmania Police attendance at family violence dispatch incidents rose from 1,582 to 5,856 in the decade to 2024, according to an independent review released earlier this month.