Lauren Flanigan found unresponsive in cell at Brisbane prison
A woman accused of murdering her three-year-old daughter near Bundaberg has been found unresponsive in her prison cell as neighbours, still reeling from the week’s horrific events, speak out.
QLD News
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Neighbours still reeling from the shocking alleged murder of a three-year-old girl have spoken after her mother and accused killer was found unresponsive in her cell.
Lauren Ingrid Flanigan, 32, allegedly stabbed her daughter, Sophia, multiple times on the front lawn of their Moore Park Beach home on Monday afternoon.
In a statement, police confirmed Ms Flanigan had been found unresponsive and taken to hospital, but her condition was still not known on Saturday night.
“Detectives from the Corrective Services Investigation Unit are investigating after a 32-year-old woman was located unresponsive while in custody at the Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre on Friday, May 30,” the police statement read.
“There is no further information available at this time.”
At Bundaberg, eerie silence has fallen on the street where flower bouquets and the wreckage of a car which crashed amid the media frenzy this week are the only interruptions in the suburban landscape.
It comes after police tape was removed from the home at Regency Rd and police packed up and left the scene on Friday night.
On Saturday, as news of Ms Flanigan being found unresponsive in her Brisbane jail cell made it back to Moore Park, the neighbourhood was a ghost town but behind closed doors, residents had conflicting feelings.
“I feel sorry for her,” a man living at a home on the intersecting Malvern Dr told this publication.
He said he was not “trying to make excuses” for what the mother was accused of doing, “but obviously there’s a lot more to it.”
Still in shock after the horror that unfolded earlier this week, the resident said the parents and children living just a few doors down had previously seemed like “just a normal, quiet family in the street”.
On the night of Sophia’s death, the resident pulled up in his driveway and heard “a kid screaming”.
“It’s a quiet neighbourhood, except for this,” he said.
Another neighbour, who lived behind the young family with a direct line of sight into the backyard, said he initially thought the screams were from teenagers.
“I just thought it was a domestic,” he said.
“I thought it was actually a teenage boy doing a lot of screaming.
“Turns out it wasn’t.”
He too was shocked by the alleged murder but not unsurprised at the news out of Brisbane, suspecting the mother had mental health issues.
Not far from the bouquets wrapped in pink paper and still scattered on the lawn, a wrecked car, which is not understood to belong to the street, remains a bizarre sight several days after it crashed.
It’s understood the black Suzuki Swift hit a parked media vehicle near the then crime-scene on Wednesday.
A neighbour said he was being interviewed by a television crew when he saw the crash happen.
Police on Saturday confirmed they were investigating reports the Suzuki hit the stationary white Ford Everest on Malvern Drive about 11.45am.
A QPS spokesman said the driver, a 22-year-old woman, was taken to hospital and treated for minor injuries.
Investigations into the cause of the crash were ongoing.
Ms Flanigan was due to front a Queensland court in July, charged with Sophia’s murder.
A Queensland Corrective Services spokesperson confirmed officers responded before the Queensland Ambulance Services arrived on site and took Ms Flanigan to the hospital.
Support was being offered to the responding officers and their colleagues.
A candlelight vigil will be held for Sophia on Sunday between 4 and 6pm at the Moore Park Beach foreshore.