Man and woman charged with murder of baby at Queensland caravan park
A man and a woman have been charged with murdering a five-week-old boy who died after being found with “distressing” internal injuries at a Queensland caravan park.
Police said paramedics responded to reports of an unresponsive baby at the park at Daisy Hill, south of Brisbane, on 14 June last year.
The child was taken to Logan hospital where he was declared dead that evening.
Police arrested a Stretton man, 44, and a Zillmere woman, 36, after a 17month investigation into the death.
Detective Inspector Mark White said the infant had died after suffering injuries from “significant force” which were not caused by an accident.
“All I can say is the medical examination of the child disclosed significant internal injuries,” he said on Thursday. “I actually won’t go into the details, it’s quite distressing.
“But it was quite clear, as at the end of that medical examination process, what the cause of death was.”
White said investigating the boy’s alleged murder had been challenging for his colleagues “to listen, to read this information and speak to people about it”.
The man and woman are scheduled to appear at the Beenleigh magistrates court on Thursday.
White said the case remained open and called for any witnesses or people who visited or lived in the caravan park at the time to contact police.
“Caravan parks have people that come and go ... maybe as as a resident, but also maybe visiting friends,” he said.
“If someone may have been in and around there and we weren’t aware of it at the time, if they could come forward, or someone may know these two people and may have had conversations with them, we’d be really interested to see what those conversations may have involved.”