Murder-suicide probe: Bodies of man and baby found in car

Police have said they will investigate why no amber alert was issued for a six-month-old baby who was reported missing two days ago and found dead in a car with its father today.

The body of a baby and a man were found in a car off Roys Rd, Coochin Creek.

THE bodies of a 46-year-old man and his six-month old baby have been found by council workers inside a car in southeast Queensland, with police treating the matter as a murder-suicide.

Detective Inspector Dave Drinnen said the baby had been reported missing by his mother after the pair failed to return on Monday but an amber alert had not been issued.

The father had been due bring the baby as part of a custody arrangement.

“The father and the child failed to turn up as a result of some custody arrangements,” Det Insp Drinnen said. “There were domestic incidents however I won’t be going into (them).”

The body of a baby and a man were found in a red Holden Commodore.

Their bodies were found by council workers about 8am today inside a red Holden Commodore wagon off Roys Rd, Coochin Creek, near Beerburrum on the Sunshine Coast.

Police initially conducted some welfare checks before the case became a “high risk” missing persons investigation.

“I think the mere fact that we have a custody incident where a child is missing is with the father that always raises concerns for us,” Det Insp Drinnen said.

“This was treated as a high-risk missing person investigation ... to try and locate the missing person and child.”

It’s unclear why no amber alert was issued however Det Insp Drinnen said this would be examined.

An Amber Alert involves the urgent broadcast of information to the public to facilitate the search for, location and the safe recovery of an abducted child or high risk missing child.

“These will be matters that we look into and at this point in time it would be unfair of me to my comment in respect of that,” he said.

Det Insp Drinnen said “numerous inquiries” were made as soon as police became aware the baby was missing.

“It’s extremely distressing a very tragic incident,” he said.

“The mother was distraught as you can well imagine.”

The parents were in a relationship but had since separated, he said.

Support has been made available to the council workers who found the bodies and to the first responders.

A crime scene has been established around the vehicle, with a heavy police presence at the scene. Forensic detectives are at the scene.

A post-mortem of the bodies will be undertaken in the coming days to shed light on what’s occurred.

Det. Insp. Drinnen said the baby and father had “been there for some time”.

“It’s a very tragic event and it’s places a lot of pressure and unfortunately our first responders you know this is part of the job that we have to get to and will be ensuring that our own people ensure that they get the support for this as well.”

Det. Insp. Drinnen didn’t believe the couple, from the Redcliffe/Moreton area, had other children.

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