Mother arrested af ter 8 children stabbed to death
She ‘feared they would be taken away’
THIS is the mother being held by Australian police over the murders of seven of her children and a niece.
Mersane Warria, 34, was pic- tured five years ago cradling a baby after giving birth in an ambulance enroute to hospital. Last night it was reported that this is her eighth child Rodney, who was among those that police suspect her of killing at her home in a suburb of Cairns, Queensland. It is understood that the children, who were aged between 18 months and 15 years, were stabbed and suffocated inside the house.
Neighbours said that Warria, who also suffered a stab wound, feared that her children were about to be taken away from her.
They claimed on Thursday that a woman was heard screaming: ‘Don’t let them take them away from us.
‘God bless us. Forgive me for what I’ll do.’
Then later that night Warria was heard shouting at someone by neighbour Rahnia Ruttensteiner, before saying loudly that she was going to make ‘a new start’.
That new start, said Miss Ruttensteiner, began with Warria putting her possessions out onto the street and giving things away to her family and friends. But it ended in the most tragic of circumstances. Warria was taken to hospital suffering from a knife wound to the chest and police said that despite the serious injury, she has been helping them with their inquiries.
Police confirmed that a second adult had been in the house earlier.
The children’s bodies were found by Warria’s 20-year-old son when he arrived home, according to her cousin Lisa Thaiday.
‘I just can’t believe it,’ said Miss Thaiday. ‘Those poor babies.’
The shocking incident comes as Australia is still coming to terms with the Sydney siege in which two innocent people and a gunman were killed, which has resulted in an outpouring of grief displayed in a sea of flowers. And yesterday it was the Cairns suburb of Manoora’s turn to grieve as locals left bunches of flowers against railings across from Warria’s home.
Robert Struber, a former resident of the house for 20 years, said he had spoken with Warria on several occasions while visiting his former neighbours.
He said that the last time he had seen the mother, a few months ago, she was ‘friendly and happy to chat’ and that she ‘seemed to really love her kids’.
Mr Struber said he had not met the father of the children.
Police who rushed to the house on Murray Street found blood ‘everywhere’, according to a neighbour.
Officers who arrived first on the scene said it was like ‘something out of a horror movie’.
Yesterday, Detective Inspector Bruno Asnicar said: ‘As it stands at the moment, there is no need for the public to be concerned about this, other than the fact that it’s a tragic, tragic event.’
The street is made up of families of different cultures and races and the properties are both governmentowned and private.
Last night, detectives were continuing their inquiries to establish what had led up to the slaughter.
Among questions concerning the police is how the killer was able to stab eight children without any of them managing to run away.
Manoora, which lies around two miles west of the coastal town’s main tourist strip, is a suburb that has suffered f rom a troubled reputation and high crime rates.
In June, it was reported that the area was at the centre of a secret government report into youth sexual abuse and domestic violence.
‘Forgive me for what I’ll do’