A 40-year-old mother of three was killed with an ax last Tuesday inside her Milford, Connecticut, condo, according to investigators. 

People who knew Orange County native Julie Minogue are shocked her life ended the way it did. 

Her ex-boyfriend and the father of her youngest child, 42-year-old former Marine Ewen Dewitt, is charged with her murder. 

Two of her children were home when it happened, and Dewitt was allegedly seen on surveillance video obtained by News 12 with an ax moments before the deadly crime. 

According to published reports, Minogue’s 17-year-old son barricaded himself inside a bedroom and jumped from a window for safety after finding Dewitt in the condo covered in his mother’s blood. 

Minogue’s 3-year-old son was found by police inside the condo unharmed and in shock, according to several media outlets. 

Her eldest son is serving in the U.S. Coast Guard and was not home when his mother was killed. 

Minogue graduated from Monroe-Woodbury in 2000 and many of her classmates and friends reached out to News 12 after the tragedy saying she grew up in Monroe and that they remember her from school. 

The district released a statement saying, “The Monroe-Woodbury school community extends its heartfelt sympathies to the family and friends of Julie Minogue. Our thoughts and prayers are with Julie’s loved ones at this difficult time.” 

The case has garnered national attention for what critics say was a preventable crime. 

Minogue had domestic violence charges pending against Dewitt from 2019 and got a restraining order against him while he was out on bond five days before she was killed. 

According to published reports, she tried to have Dewitt arrested again for violating the restrainer order after he allegedly sent a series of texts but he was never charged. 

“Domestic violence homicides are predictable and preventable,” said Fearless! director Kellyann Kostyal-Larrier. “When a victim says that they’re concerned for their safety and life, we all have to work together to move swiftly.” 

Kostyal-Larrier is the director for the domestic violence agency Fearless! in Orange County. 

She says victims need to be taken seriously and abusers held accountable immediately. 

“We have to be spending more time and resources developing a better skill set that can interrupt this behavior,” said Kostyal-Larrier. 

Minogue’s sister said in a GoFundMe for the victim’s children that Minogue tried multiple times to keep her family safe and that she spent most of her parenting years as a single mom caring for her kids.