Man accused of mass killings
NEIGHBOURS of a woman and children left for dead in their Perth home for up to a week say they thought the family had gone on holidays.
West Australian police established a crime scene around the home in Bedford, Perth, where the bodies of Mara Quinn, her children Charlotte, 2, Alice, 2, and Beatrix, 3, and her mother, Beverley Quinn, were found on Sunday.
WA Police charged the children’s father, Anthony Robert Harvey, 24, with the murders after he handed himself in at a police station in the state’s north.
Mr Harvey appeared before a Perth Magistrates’ Court via video link from Karratha, 1500km north of Perth, before being remanded to appear in Stirling Gardens Magistrates’ Court on September 19.
WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson confirmed Mr Harvey was accused of killing his partner and children on September 3, six days before the bodies were discovered. His mother-in-law is believed to have been killed the next day.
Officers discovered the grisly scene on Sunday after Mr Harvey surrendered at the police station in Karratha.
The scene was reportedly so horrific a police chaplain was called in for much of the day yesterday to support investigators, particularly the two officers initially sent to the house to check Mr Harvey’s claims.
The West Australian reports Ms Quinn, aged in her 40s, lived at the Bedford home with Mr Harvey. According to her Facebook page, she became engaged in August 2014 and had her first child in March 2015.
Records show she bought the family’s home in 2008.
Friend Janelle Dorant said Ms Quinn was several years older than Mr Harvey.
“I just don’t understand,” Ms Dorant said. “She was always happy and very nurturing when she fell pregnant. She is lovely, I’m shocked.”
Desrae Cambos said the family, which seemed closeknit, had lived at the house for about four years, with the father running a lawn-mowing and landscaping business.
Mrs Cambos said she had assumed the family had gone away on holiday.
A distraught neighbour said she often saw children playing in the front yard.
“How could someone do that to their own children?,” she said. “It’s sickening to think someone could do that.”