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Yaya Next Door

51:16 recording · EN · 2 speakers

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Brief overview

Daniel turned his mother's murder by his father into advocacy and a neighbour-inspired kindness movement.

  1. Doing everything right was not enoughTeresa took out an order, reported the calls and the confrontations, and was still killed.
  2. Support should not stop when the case doesDaniel says counselling sessions were capped early, but grief hits hardest now, at marriage and fatherhood.
  3. A neighbour changed two grieving livesFood over the fence became a mother figure, a movement and a cookbook.
Executive Summary AI
  • On a cold July night in Melbourne in 2013, a neighbour heard screaming and called for help; police found 49-year-old Teresa Mancuso murdered in her parents' garage, stabbed at least 16 times and beaten.0:00
  • Her ex-husband Fernando Paulino, who had threatened and stalked her weeks before a court date to divide their assets, was arrested two years later and sentenced by Justice Andrew Bell to 30 years for family violence of the most extreme kind.1:44
  • Her son Daniel describes a childhood of yelling and fighting, his mother doing everything the system asked of her including an intervention order and police reports, and the night he came home to blaring lights and a television and could not reach either parent.7:12
  • Daniel and his brother Luke moved back into the house their mother died in, lived in fear during the two years before the arrest, and were fed and looked after by the Greek grandmother next door, who passed chicken and rice over the fence.27:16
  • Those filmed acts of kindness became Yaya Next Door, a social media movement, an award-recognised article in The Age and a cookbook, while Daniel now speaks publicly on family violence prevention and prepares to become a father himself.29:03
Key Quote
“But in saying that, I feel like, again, turning that negative into a positive where I've got the blueprint of a man that I don't want to be and what I want to be, especially being a father and having a family now.”
— Daniel7:57
Key Quote
“It was very hard, but as bad as it sounds, it was a relief because I knew he was arrested.”
— Daniel21:37
Key Quote
“Anyone could be this selfless soul.”
— Daniel32:33