Czarina dropped her kids off at school. Moments later, she was dead.

Czarina Gatbonton Tumaliuan adored her children.

Each morning, she would stand outside her home in Melbourne's west and make sure the four of them safely crossed the road to school, just a few metres away.

On March 27, she did just that. Only now, she won't get to do it again.

Czarina won't get to pick her children up from school. Never get to see their smiling faces. Never get to hear their infectious laughs.

Just moments after the school bell rang, neighbours reported hearing harrowing screams, according to The Age.

Then police and an ambulance tore down the street.

Czarina's body was found in the backyard of the Werribee home with stab wounds just after 9am, police said.

Police arrested her husband, Jessie James Tumaliuan, 41, and charged him with murder later that evening.

Tumaliuan returned to the Victorian Supreme Court on Wednesday morning when he formally entered a guilty plea to his wife's murder.

'She was defenceless.'

Tumaliuan's barrister Chris Hooper previously told the court the couple had been separated before the murder but his client was continuing to attend their home.

On the day of the killing, Tumaliuan used a key to enter the home intending to confront his wife verbally about money, Hooper said on Friday.

CCTV footage captured some of the murder, including Czarina's screams as she ran into the backyard. Ten seconds later, the video went quiet.

Hooper said his client accepted the woman was unarmed, while Tumaliuan had equipped himself with a knife.

"No fault is laid at her feet at all," he said. "She was defenceless and there were multiple stab wounds."

But he said Tumaliuan had not visited the house with murderous intent as he was initially unarmed.

"Circumstances occurred off-camera ... where his intention was not to kill, but to cause really serious injury — that's his position," Hooper said.

Tumaliuan called triple-0 for assistance three times, the court was told.

Prosecutor Nadia Kaddeche said an assault occurred inside the home before the victim ran outside and she could be heard saying she had been hurt.

"There is no desisting from when she goes outside and it (the assault) continues not on camera, around the side of the house," Kaddeche said.

Justice Amanda Fox indicated to Tumaliuan she would sentence him to up to 26 years behind bars if he pleaded guilty to murder, adding he would have to serve 20 years of that sentence before becoming eligible for parole.

Tumaliuan accepted the sentence indication as he pleaded guilty to one count of murder on Wednesday.

"Guilty, your honour," he said, as he stood in the court dock.

Tumaliuan's sentence will be formally decided following pre-sentence hearings later in the year. His trial, which was set to begin early next month, was vacated.

He was taken back to prison and will return to court on March 13 for a pre-sentence hearing.

A mother, friend and businesswoman.

Czarina owned her own online business, which was featured in Australia's Filipino newspaper The Philippine Times, and described herself on her social media as a working mum, businesswoman, "supermum, foodie, adventurer".

"Successful mothers/women are not the ones that never struggled. They are the ones that never give up, despite the struggles," she shared.

She described her children as her "treasure, pride, joy and inspiration".

All of that was taken from her.

"Czarina, fondly known as Toots by those who knew her, was a devoted mother, joyful friend, and strong woman who touched many lives," loved ones wrote in a since-deleted GoFundMe.

"Her sudden passing has created an immense void, leaving her community heartbroken and her four young children to navigate an uncertain future without their mother's guidance and care."

Czarina was the 16th Australian woman killed in 2025, according to Sherele Moody's Australian Femicide Watch.

-with AAP

Feature image: Facebook/Toots Gatbonton Tumaliuan.