Father's chilling texts before he killed daughter in murder-suicide
A father who killed his daughter in a murder-suicide sent his former partner text messages explaining why he could not drop their toddler back to her at the agreed time.
Four-year-old Eeva Dorendahl died at the hands of her father Greg Hutchings between January 11 and 18 in 2014.
The young girl’s parents broke up when she was just two and their contact had become “strained and emotionally difficult”, an inquest into the death heard.
Mr Hutchings had spent Christmas with his daughter in 2013 in Pottsville, near the Queensland border, and was to return the girl to Nambour train station on January 9, but the mother never saw her daughter again.
The day before she was due to be reunited with her daughter, the mother wrote Mr Hutchings an email asking what time he would be meeting her at the train station.
He responded saying he was sick and could not travel on public transport. He said the mother could drive to Pottsville to pick up Eeva or wait until the weekend.
On January 10 and 11, Mr Hutchings still claimed to be sick and said he could not drop his daughter off.
The mother then drove to Pottsville to pick up her daughter.
Mr Hutchings told his former partner via harrowing text messages he and his daughter would not be home when she arrived.
“Taken Eeva to the river mouth next to the park at Postville (sic). Call when you get here if you don’t see us,” he wrote.
When she arrived in Pottsville she called Mr Hutchings and got his message bank and she left a voicemail saying she had arrived.
She did not hear back from her estranged partner and could not find them for an hour, so went to his home where nobody answered the door.
The mother then reported the incident to police, who initially classified the case as a “custody dispute” rather than a “missing person”, the inquest heard.
Two days later police and SES air, land and sea searches intensified around Pottsville to find the pair.
Bodies found with utility knives, prescription pills and toys
On January 28, a search party found the man dead alongside the four-year-old beneath the canopy of a pandanus tree near the beach.
Utility knives, prescription pills and toys were among the items found on their bodies.
Advanced decomposition meant DNA was needed to identify the bodies and made a cause of death impossible to determine, the court heard.
Experts theorise the father, who had depression and previously expressed a desire to kill himself and his daughter, had overdosed.
“With respect to (the girl), I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that (the father) caused her death, by some means, possibly by using the drugs he had taken with him to cause her to overdose,” Acting State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan said.
In coming to her conclusions, the court noted the father’s history of self-harm, deteriorating mental health, anxiety while proceeding through the family court, and erratic and violent tendencies.
The findings cite expert testimony that concluded the girl “was killed by her father prior to him taking his own life as a result of his desire to re-establish control over the family situation”.
Ms O’Sullivan made recommendations that, when a parent fails to return a child subject to a parenting plan or court order they be treated as a missing person by police.
with AAP
