A relative
has told of her horror after the bodies of eight children, believed to
be siblings aged between 18 months and 15-years-old, were found dead at a
Cairns home following a massacre just six days before Christmas.
It
is understood the children were stabbed and suffocated inside the
house. A woman, 34, was also rushed to hospital in a critical condition
with stab wounds to her chest but was assisting police.
Cairns
Regional Crime Co-ordinator Detective Inspector Bruno Asnicar said that
the woman was the mother of seven of the dead children and the other
child was related. He described the massacre as a 'tragic and traumatic
event'.
The
woman's devastated cousin, Lisa Thaiday earlier told reporters the
woman was the children's mother. 'I just can't believe it,' she
said. 'Those poor babies.'
Manoora,
around 4km west of the coastal town's main tourist strip, is a suburb
that historically has suffered a bad reputation and high crime rates. In
June, media revealed the suburb was at the centre of a secret
government report into youth sexual abuse and domestic violence.
Details
about what investigators found inside the house have not been revealed
but a neighbour said she had been told there were bloody scenes
'everywhere' inside. Officers who arrived first on the scene said it was
like 'something out of a horror movie'.
Specialist
police officers are now on their way from Brisbane to help with the
situation including senior Homicide Squad detectives as well as forensic
and child trauma specialists. The crime scene is completely locked down
and there are no formal suspects as yet.
'There's
not much else we can say, but we have a range of strategies in place to
support the family through this very difficult time,' Detective
Inspector Asnicar said.
'It's
a tragic and traumatic with so many deceased in one place. It's right
up there with some of the most serious things I've ever had to deal
with.'
Ms Thaiday said another sibling, a 20-year-old man, arrived home to discover his brothers and sisters dead inside the house.
He is now being consoled by other family members.
'I'm
going to see him now, he needs comforting,' Ms Thaiday said. She
described the family and extended relatives as close-knit and many live
in surrounding suburbs.
'We're
a big family and most of us are from the (Torres) Strait,' she said,
adding that she rushed to the scene after hearing about the incident on
the radio.
A
13-year-old girl said she walked two of her girlfriends to the Murray
Street house on Thursday evening after they had been shopping.
She said when they got to the house, the older girl's mother came out and gave her money for a taxi home.'She
was saying stuff about God and other stuff,' she told AAP near the
crime scene on Friday afternoon. She said: 'Papa God gave me the power
to do anything.'
The woman also told the girl she was a 'warrior'.
As the day went on more and more people lay flowers near the scene of the tragedy in Cairns
The
woman who is now at the centre of the family massacre in Cairns was
also ‘happy go lucky and seemed to really love her kids’, Daily Mail
Australia has been told.
Robert
Struber, who lived for 20 years in the house where the deaths took
place, said he had spoken with the 34-year-old on several occasions
while visiting his former neighbours.
He
said the last time he had seen the mother, a few months ago, she was
‘friendly and happy to chat’ and that she had mainly looked after her
large family and 'seemed to really love her kids’.
Mr Struber said he hadn't met the father of the children.
He
said the street had a mixture of Aboriginal families and people from
the Torres Strait and Cook Islands. He moved out of the four bedroom
house two years ago because it was too large, and said that following
the tragedy he ‘never wanted to go back inside it’.
ABC reported that a relative of the children, Larry Woosup, said the adults who lived in the house were his niece and nephew.
'I just heard about it. My family just rang because they're worried about our sister,' he said.
'Some
of them are my sister's kids. I just got a phone call from my son's
mother from down in Mackay because they had seen the news flash down
there.
'This is a close neighbourhood. I'm desperate like everyone else to hear [what happened].'
Neighbour
Bessie Mareko said she saw the 34-year-old woman and a number of
children at 2:00am on Friday morning cleaning up their home and putting
unwanted items on the street.
Rebecca Levers who lives six doors down from the family on Murray Street, could not understand why this tragedy happened.
‘They moved in about a year ago. They seemed really normal to me, I never heard of any trouble with them,’ she said.
‘It’s heartbreaking knowing there were kids involved, I think it’s a big shock to the community.
‘I’ve been here for seven years and it’s the first time there’s ever been a big crime like this.’
