When Hannah Clarke was dying with her children trapped in a burning car, her foreign husband Rowan Baxter was still trying to stop people from helping them, an investigation into her death was said.
Key points:
- The investigation found evidence of those who tried to help the family after they were set on fire
- A woman told the court she had met a man with “brute force” who was “guarding the car”
- The three children were killed in the car, while Mrs. Clarke died shortly after the attack from her injuries.
WARNING: This story contains content that readers may find disturbing.
Heavily burned, he was around “growling” and “guarding” the burning vehicle with the children while her mother rolled around trying to extinguish the flames they were extinguishing, the Brisbane investigation heard.
The horrific testimony came from spectators who were present as the horrific incident unfolded.
Ms Clarke, 31, her daughters Aaliyah, 6, and Laianah, 4, and her son, three-year-old Trey, died after Baxter jumped into her vehicle with a gas can and set it on fire in a suburban Brisbane road in 2020. stole. .
Physiotherapist Michael Zemek had tried to help Mrs Clarke after she drove up to him while washing his car on Raven Street in Camp Hill in the southern suburbs of Brisbane.
Mr Zemek said he saw a man in the front passenger seat holding Ms Clarke in a bear arm with a resigned look on his face.
“His behavior was controlled … he did not engage me,” Mr Zemek told the inquiry.
Mr Zemek said Mrs Clarke shouted: “Call the police, he’s trying to kill me, he’s poured petrol on me.”
Mr Zemek told the hearing that as he was moving on to the car, it exploded.
“I just saw a bang, it just whispered right and … Black hit my face.”
He said that despite fire, Ms. Clarke managed to get out of the car.
“At that moment, she said, ‘I did not save my children.’ I could not save my children, “said Mr Zemek.
He told investigators he did not notice that there were children in the car, and he saw Mrs Clarke’s stranger lying outside the car, apparently “out”.
Mr Zemek said he had saved him but then went back to Mrs Clarke.
The attacker, however, did not stay on the ground for long.
“He did not want me to put out the fire”
Another resident who lived around the corner, Kerry Fernandez, ran into a fire extinguisher and immediately noticed a “badly burned” guy standing near the car.
She thought he posed no danger to her, but as she tried to extinguish the fire, he moved.
Ms Fernandez said she tried to use the extinguisher on him in the car.
“That moment he got out of the car and … in that second his behavior changed. He did not want me to put out the fire.
“If I had gone to the right side, he would have chased me there. I felt very intimidated. He just showed me that he has brute force. I do not know how he did it,” she said. reminded of that time.
“He was crawling or something. No words came out to say, ‘Stop.’ I felt like he was almost guarding the car.”
Ms Fernandez said she stopped saving the car after a neighbor alerted her to the fact that the man was armed.
“I dropped the fire extinguisher and I bolted it,” she said.
Ms Clarke, 31, died of her injuries just hours after they were set on fire while their children were all killed in the car fire.
‘I can not believe he did that’
The investigator was told that two residents had asked him to get out of the car, but he ignored it.
While he was blocking the rescuers, Ms. Clarke was still trying to tell people about her struggles to protect herself and her children.
Another neighbor, Samantha Covey, said while Mrs Clarke was battling her horrific burns, she continued to talk about domestic violence she had inflicted on her estranged husband.
While Mrs Clarke was being treated, it was seen that he had received a knife from the vehicle.
Ms Covey said Ms Clarke told her: “I can not believe he did that, I have a DVOs [domestic violence orders]”.
She said Ms Clarke also asked, “Where are my babies, where are my children? One gets my children.”
Student Reece Gourlay said he saw Baxter take a few steps on the natural strip and then a few steps along the car before falling to his knees to hold the knife to his abdomen.
It was later revealed that he had stabbed himself to death on the spot.
Ms. Clarke met Baxter in 2009, they were married in 2012, and separated in early December 2019 when Ms. Clarke moved into her parents’ home with her children.
Outside the court before the investigation, her father Lloyd Clarke said the family was hoping for answers.
“We just hope we find out where the system left Hannah and her children,” he said.
“And they can put procedures in place and move on so people don’t have to go through this horrible thing.”
Her mother Sue Clarke said she was “nervous” to hear the evidence but wanted to be there to give her a voice.
“It will be hard, and I will cry, I will always cry, but we will get there,” she said.
The investigation continues.
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