Two days after Vicki Van Aken baked her neighbour cupcakes, he stabbed her to death in front of her young sons.

Milorad Zaric, 48, had been chasing after his own teenage son who sought sanctuary at Van Aken’s Bayswater home in Melbourne’s east.

A confused Van Aken let the boy inside and then opened the door for Zaric when he would not stop banging on it.

Zaric said “welcome home Vicki” before pulling a knife from his waistband and stabbing her multiple times to the neck, stomach and shoulder.

Van Aken’s 16-year-old son saw the attack and tackled Zaric as his mother slumped against the wall.

He grabbed Zaric in a chokehold, ordering his 12-year-old brother to get out of the house.

Zaric repeatedly punched the teen and slammed him against a wall but the boy only let go to run to safety.

When police arrived on the scene, Zaric told officers he had taken a bunch of ketamine before beginning to growl and call out for Satan.

Van Aken’s sister Mary Kadis on Tuesday said Zaric’s drug-addled state was no excuse as the killer pleaded guilty to murder on the morning of November 16, 2024, in the Victorian Supreme Court.

“The choices leading up to that day were yours,” she said on Tuesday.

“Did Vicki have a choice that day? No, she didn’t.”

Two days before the murder, Van Aken brought over cupcakes to Zaric’s house.

The killer thanked her over text, describing the treats as “amazing”.

He then started abusing ketamine, cannabis and alcohol, and he lashed out at his teenage son on November 15, pushing the boy down the stairs and stomping on his head.

Zaric attacked his son again on the morning of the murder, punching the teen and forcing him to flee to Van Aken’s when he brandished a knife.

Kadis said her sister’s death had left her shattered and traumatised.

“She was my everything – she was my best friend, my soul mate,” she told the court.

“We have been handed an eternal life sentence.”

Van Aken’s mother Sofia Apostolopoulos said the grief she carried was beyond words.

“My daughter was my life,” she said in a statement to the court.

“Since her death, I have been trapped in a living nightmare I cannot wake up from.”

Close friend Maria Pantelios described Van Aken as like family.

“Her presence had a way of lifting others, even in the darkest moments,” she told the court.

The plea hearing before Justice Jacinta Forbes continues.

Source: AAP