One day after Shereen Kumar vanished, I called her boyfriend Vincent. What he told me in that chilling phone call is even more disturbing now the full, horrifying truth has come out, writes TITA SMITH

It was a wintry Thursday evening when the police alert reached the news desk: model and mother of two Shereen Kumar had disappeared from her Sydney home.

According to the press release, Shereen, 43, was last seen leaving her Dural property approximately 24 hours earlier, around 9 p.m. on Wednesday, July 20, 2022, wearing only pajamas and a robe.

Her boyfriend Vincent Carlino, 39, claimed she left the property on foot and did not take her phone with her.

He insisted he looked everywhere for her but just couldn’t find her. But the words didn’t sound right coming out of his mouth.

I can know. He spoke them to me, as a journalist looking for more information about the crime, hours after police began a massive search for Shereen.

That chilling conversation will haunt me forever.

Shereen Kumar, 42, is pictured with Vincent Carlino, 39. She was the director of Mad Dogs & Englishmen in Chatswood, while he was the franchisee of the company’s Hornsby chain.

Unusual ‘disappearance’

Shereen was a strikingly beautiful mother of two young children, model and director of a dog walking chain, Mad Dogs & Englishmen.

She had divorced her ex-husband and was in a new relationship with Carlino, who was also a franchisee for the same company.

It sounded bizarre for someone to march into a cold, dark winter life, without her phone, car or – at the very least – a torch and not return.

In Dural, an affluent semi-rural suburb on the northwestern edge of the city, sprawling houses sit on a plot of land, far from neighbors.

The landscape is pitch black at night and public transport is limited.

When I called Carlino’s cell phone number, seeking more information, he was cold and defensive, expressing his concerns about Shereen only as an afterthought.

A beloved mother of two, Shereen was a part-time model and businesswoman

Pictured: the Dural estate where Shereen was murdered in July 2022

“Yes, I’m at the police station now,” Carlino said.

“I told the police all the places I thought she might be!”

Me: “So she left the house at 9pm in her pajamas and you haven’t seen her since?”

Carlino: ‘Yes, she didn’t take her phone or the van with her.’

Me: ‘That is very worrying. You should be worried.’

Carlino: ‘Yes. I’m very concerned.’

The conversation ended with me telling Carlino to reach out if anything else came to mind that might help with the public appeal to find her.

It will come as no surprise that he never did.

Just two days later, Carlino was arrested and charged with murder after detectives found Shereen’s body in nearby bushland, wrapped in plastic.

While legal issues at the time prevented the media from making Carlino’s previous criminal record public, it can now be revealed that he had a history of violence against women.

Carlino (pictured) told Daily Mail Australia he was ‘extremely concerned’ about his partner. In reality, he had killed her hours earlier and dumped her body in bushland

‘A step above the devil’

Last month, Carlino pleaded guilty to killing Shereen the night he claimed she disappeared.

The court heard the pair had been in a tumultuous on-again, off-again relationship for 17 months.

According to agreed facts, the couple had an argument over WhatsApp in the weeks leading up to Shereen’s death, with Carlino describing himself as a “manipulative bastard who doesn’t deserve love or can’t give love.”

During one of their arguments, he told Shereen that he was “just one step above the devil.”

On the day she died, the couple had an argument about dog walking and their relationship.

Shereen attended an online video therapy session that afternoon, with her therapist later telling police she seemed distracted and worried.

It was the last time she was seen alive by anyone other than Carlino.

Carlino later bombarded her with 123 calls in 42 minutes. Sometime between 7.19pm and 9.38pm that evening he murdered her at her home by beating and then strangling her.

He then pushed her body into his work truck and dumped her in nearby bushland, wrapped in plastic.

He then tried to hide her by covering her with branches.

Carlino then called the police the next morning, claiming that Shereen had left the house to take a walk in her pajamas to “get some fresh air” but never returned.

Detectives discovered hours after the investigation that Shereen was living in fear.

He also claimed that he searched for her after she went missing, but the route he provided did not match his phone’s location data.

That was the discrepancy that led detectives to Shereen’s body.

Carlino has been in custody since his arrest. He will be sentenced on December 9 and faces life in prison.

Devastated friends and loved ones gathered at Kenthurst Park, northwest Sydney (pictured) for a candlelight vigil in honor of Shereen on July 24, 2022

Friend Erica Wadlow-Smith (pictured at the wake) recalled her fond memories of Shereen as she described the mother-of-two’s “big smile, enthusiasm and can-do attitude.”

Mind games and then murder

While Carlino awaits his fate in court, Shereen is still remembered by her heartbroken loved ones as a strong woman, loving mother and good friend.

Friend Erika Wadlow-Smith described Shereen as an ‘amazing, intelligent being’ with the best smile in the world.

“She threw her head back and it just fell out,” Ms Wadlow-Smith told the Sydney Morning Herald last month.

Ms Wadlow-Smith said she was baffled as to why Shereen chose to date Carlino, but believes he took advantage of her kind-hearted nature and played mind games with her.

Ms Wadlow-Smith said politicians must do more to tackle coercive control, an insidious form of domestic abuse.

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, by 2024, 23 percent of Australian women (2.3 million) and 14 percent of men (1.3 million) have experienced emotional abuse from a current or previous partner.

“I really want people to know: don’t think that domestic abuse only happens to weak or easily led, vulnerable women,” Ms Wadlow-Smith said.

‘Because Shereen Kumar was astute and intelligent. She wasn’t crazy about anyone.’

Shereen’s ex-husband Gurpreet Beehan described her as a devoted and adoring mother to their two children.

He promised to make sure she got justice.

“She was a wonderful mother to our children and she will be forever missed,” Mr Beehan previously told Daily Mail Australia.

“This crime has devastated us all.

‘No one can replace a mother.’

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