Young sisters who died in hot car were known to child safety department
The two little girls who died after their mother allegedly left them in a hot car were known to the Queensland Department of Child Safety services.
The mother of two little girls who died in a hot car parked outside their home is the first person to be charged under Queensland's new definition of murder.
The one and two-year-old sisters died inside a black station wagon parked across the front yard of their family home south of Brisbane on Saturday.
The mother of the girls, Kerri-Ann Conley, 27, has been remanded in custody on two counts of murder and two drug-related charges.
She is the first person to be charged under the state's expanded definition of murder, which includes reckless indifference to human life.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Monday said the state's child safety department had been engaged with the family and will now conduct a child death review, as is protocol.
Attorney-General Yvette D'ath will ask Cheryl Vardon, the Queensland Family and Child Commission's principal commissioner, to investigate what happened.
Ms Palaszczuk said she would release those findings.
"The death of these two young girls is an absolute tragedy," she said.
"I was heartbroken when I heard about it, I think everybody would be in exactly the same position."
Child Safety Minister Di Farmer has said her department would offer police any assistance needed in their investigation.
She did not appear when her matter was mentioned in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday.
Conley was remanded to appear in Beenleigh Magistrates Court on December 11.
Paramedics were called to a home at Waterford West in Logan, south of Brisbane, on Saturday afternoon but could not revive the sisters.
The girls were declared dead at the scene and police say they showed signs of being exposed to extreme heat.
Officers remained at the home on Sunday, piecing together what happened, as neighbours and community members left soft teddies and flowers at the front gate.
The black station wagon remained parked across the yard.
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