Locals struggle to accept murder-suicide theory
PERTH Three guns found at a farm where seven people were found shot dead near Margaret River in Western Australia on Friday were licensed to the owner of the property, Peter Miles, police say.
West Australia Police Commissioner Chris Dawson confirmed that the seven people – Miles, 61, his wife Cynda, 58, and their daughter Katrina and her four children, Taye, Ryan, Ayre and Kadyn Cockman – were found shot dead on the 12ha hobby farm in Osmington, south of Perth, in the early hours of Friday morning.
The apparent murder-suicide is Australia’s worst mass shooting since the Port Arthur massacre in 1996.
Police continued to search the property yesterday, in a painstaking forensic investigation that is expected to continue into next week.
Dawson said three firearms were found at the location, and they were all licensed to Peter Miles. He would not confirm reports that police suspected that Miles had called police at 5.15am on Friday local time, shortly before his and his six relatives’ bodies were found.
‘‘This is a complex criminal investigation,’’ Dawson said. ‘‘It is far too premature to come to any conclusive statement about that.’’
As police seek answers to the apparent murder-suicide, locals in the Margaret River community say fingers pointing at Miles ‘‘do not make sense’’, with some alleging that media reports and investigators have ‘‘got it wrong’’.
Locals say they ‘‘can’t get their head around’’ the suggestion that Miles could be responsible.
‘‘I don’t understand the suicide part of the story,’’ said a close friend of Katrina Miles, who asked not to be named.
‘‘They were really close, she and her parents, they were all lovely people. There was just a lot of love in that family.’’
‘‘I can’t get my head around FACEBOOK that. She had had a lot of issues with her ex-partner, that I could understand. But the suicide I don’t understand.’’
After police were called to the property, they found the bodies of Cynda Miles and Katrina Miles and her children, who were aged 8 to 13.
Peter and Cynda Miles owned the property, and their daughter lived there with with her children.
The crime scene is so extensive, seniorWApolice have said they expect to be at the site for up to five days.
The property at the centre of the horror discovery is situated about 100 metres past the intersection of Osmington Rd and Cain Rd. The next closest property is situated across many rural fields, such is the remoteness of the area.
A police contingent has locked down the scene as media have gathered at the site, trying to figure out what has happened.
Several locals were allowed to drive down Osmington Road past the cordoned-off scene and to their homes and places of work. Some would have been aware of the tragedy that had just unfolded nearby. Others may not have been.
One local who wished not to be named described the family at the centre of the tragedy as ‘‘quiet’’.
‘‘They kept to themselves, although I did try to reach out to them and make contact,’’ he said.
‘‘This is just a quiet neck of the woods. Who would believe it?’’ Fairfax