Police have charged a 29-year-old Perth man with murder after his twin brother’s body was found in the backyard of their Orelia home, in a case detectives are treating as a suspected family violence homicide following welfare concerns raised by a visiting relative.
Western Australia Police said a family member contacted authorities on Thursday with welfare concerns about the property in Orelia, a suburb south of Perth. Officers who attended discovered the body in the backyard and called in homicide detectives.
Charge and custody
Homicide squad investigators charged Ashley Bruno Grillo with one count of murder. Police said he had been in custody since the discovery and was taken to hospital for treatment of an unspecified medical condition before his scheduled court appearance on Saturday.
Detective Acting Superintendent Jessica Securo told reporters on Friday that the victim had obvious injuries and that blades seized from the house could have been used as weapons. Forensic officers examined disturbed soil in the backyard after the body was removed.
Family violence lens
Securo said police were treating the death as a suspected family violence homicide, a classification that triggers additional review pathways in Western Australia even when the parties are related. The twins had lived together at the Orelia address, police said, and no other residents were inside the home when officers arrived.
Neighbours described a quiet street shaken by the sudden police presence, with major crime squad vehicles parked for much of Thursday and Friday. Counselling services said they were ready to support local schools if students knew the family, though education authorities had not announced any campus closures.
Court and investigation steps
Grillo was due to appear in court on Saturday, where prosecutors would outline the brief facts and magistrates would set the next mention date. Police have not released a detailed timeline of the injuries and said post-mortem results would guide whether additional charges are considered.
Investigators will continue to analyse forensic samples from the backyard and the seized blades, and will interview the relative who raised the initial alarm. Securo asked anyone with information about recent disturbances at the property to contact Crime Stoppers.
For Orelia, the charge marks the transition from an unexplained death to a contested criminal case, with the twin relationship adding a layer of complexity for both the court system and family violence support workers who must engage surviving relatives.
Western Australia recorded a rise in domestic homicides last financial year, and advocacy groups said early engagement with affected families remained critical even when suspects were already in custody. Police have not said whether any weapons charges will be added to the murder count, leaving that decision to prosecutors once forensic testing on the seized blades is complete.