Tributes have poured in for former Maribyrnong Mayor Sarah Carter, who was found dead at her home in Melbourne’s west.
The 45-year-old woman was found by emergency services in her Maribyrnong home at around 3.45pm on Tuesday and could not be resuscitated.
The glamorous councillor was elected to Melbourne City Council in 2008, before taking on the role of mayor in 2011.
Her political interests include gender equality and social justice.
Victoria Police confirmed a coroner’s report was being prepared, but did not provide details on her cause of death, which police said was not being treated as suspicious.
In 2020, Mrs. Carter made national headlines after she announced on social media that her upcoming wedding was off after receiving information from a third party.
A few days earlier, she had announced on Facebook her upcoming marriage to Aaron Lipson, an advertising executive.
“On Saturday the most amazing man I have ever met got down on one knee and asked her to marry him,” Carter wrote in the post, which generated hundreds of comments on the social media website.
“I of course said yes straight away and we got engaged. I am the luckiest woman in the world and can’t wait to be your wife, Aaron Lipson – I love you to the moon and back.”
Well-known mayor Sarah Carter broke off her engagement to boyfriend Aaron Lipson in 2020 after receiving information from a third party
Sarah Carter shared her upcoming nuptials with her boyfriend of eight months in an excited Facebook post in 2020
But while she was celebrating the news with her friends and family and enjoying the congratulations, she received a call from a third person with bad news.
“The wedding is off,” she wrote in the second post.
‘Thanks for the woman telling me, it’s good to know now.
‘Of course I am very ashamed.’
Mrs Carter reportedly had no shortage of male admirers in the years following the split and at the time of her death she was linked to Melbourne man Nikhil Roy, with whom she celebrated an anniversary just months ago.
In April, the couple were spotted boarding a plane to Singapore together, after which Carter headed off on a solo adventure through Europe.
The trip was her first real break from her council duties in 15 years, she said at the time.
Ms Carter has spoken openly about her IVF journey and her struggles with infertility. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, she spoke out against the Victorian Government’s suspension of IVF treatments.
A third party called to tell Mrs. Carter that she enjoyed the congratulations
Mrs Carter with Labor MP Bill Shorten
Online tributes poured in on Wednesday for beloved character Footscray, who had only just returned from a trip to Vanuatu with her employer, the charity Save the Children.
New South Wales MP Michael McCormack told a moving story about Mrs Carter on that trip.
‘Last Friday night I was due to make a live crossing from Port Vila to Sky News in Australia.
“We had all been out to dinner in a busy (and therefore noisy) restaurant and the moment of the interview was getting closer,” he said.
‘She arranged a quiet spot with the restaurant manager, then stacked stools on top of each other, carefully placing containers of food and a candle on top to steady the phone.
Cr Carter (right) recently celebrated an anniversary at the end of May with her partner, Nikhil Roy (left).
New South Wales MP Michael McCormack with the makeshift studio Sarah Carter (right) recently assembled on a trip
“There you have it!” she exclaimed when everything was set up. “How incredibly professional.”
Sarah was delighted with her innovative ‘makeshift studio’ setup and laughed as she rushed to ask the manager to turn the music down and politely ask a few customers nearby to be quiet for a moment while I beamed Sky presenter Danica De Giorgio.
Pressure is already mounting on the Victorian Government to organise a state funeral for Mrs Carter.
Mrs Carter was seen by many as a future Labor MP and was well liked and known in political circles in both Melbourne and Canberra.
She was the first woman to be elected Mayor of Maribyrnong three times and has received several awards for her contributions to the council since her first election in 2008.
When she died, she was serving her fourth consecutive term on the council.
