TEXTS REVEAL WIFE’S TERROR
AS grieving family, friends and strangers yesterday flocked to the Brisbane street where “monster” Rowan Baxter burned his family to death, text messages revealed how terrified his estranged wife was before he killed her.
Raven St, Camp Hill became a shrine as countless mourners paid their respects to Hannah Clarke and her three young children. By 10am, the street was awash with emotion, as family, friends and strangers gathered to say goodbye.
Bouquets were left on the corner of Raven and Pryde streets, plus an anti-domestic violence banner which shone like a beacon in the sunlight.
As people grieved, more details emerged yesterday of the horror Ms Clarke was living through before Wednesday’s shocking murder-suicide.
Ms Clarke, 31, told one of her husband’s relatives she was “just so glad I got out when I did” before recounting a terrifying four days of him on the run with their daughter.
A series of messages between Ms Clarke and the relative show her relief at having escaped Baxter, a personal trainer and former footballer she had married at age 19.
The terrified mother was being stalked by Baxter after she left him late last year, taking their three children Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4, and Trey, 3, to live with her parents at Carindale.
She texted the relative about having a domestic violence order, and repeatedly used the word “fear” when talking about him.
Ms Clarke was ambushed by her estranged husband as she left her parents’ home on Tuesday to drive the children to school.
He set the car alight with Ms Clarke and their three children inside, and stopped onlookers from rescuing the children. He then stabbed himself in the chest.
While he and the children died at the scene, Ms Clarke died in hospital hours later.
Her father described Baxter as a “monster” who will “rot in hell” for murdering his family.
“The scum rots in hell,”
Lloyd Clarke wrote on Facebook yesterday.
“He was a monster that only cared about himself, he might have said he cared & loved his children but I know it was always about him coming first.”
Ms Clarke had legally changed her surname before her death.
Hero tradie Matt Gee-East is one of the people who will be permanently haunted after watching the sickening scene unfold.
“My brothers actually yelled out — I thought it was a house fire, but we came around the corner and seen the car,” Mr Gee-East said.
“When we got up here, (Hannah) was on the sidewalk screaming. She said her babies were in the car.
“The car started going down the hill and we tried to stop it. We got the back door open and that’s when I seen the kids in the car. It was bad.”
Mr Gee-East said he would not soon forget the ordeal, which unfolded in seconds while he and his brothers were building a retaining wall on adjoining Pryde St. “I didn’t realise (the kids were in there) until the door come open, but it was too late,” he said.