Toddler deaths: Specialist detectives heading to Central Qld

Specialist detectives are heading to Central Queensland to probe the deaths of two little boys thought to have become trapped inside a disused car.

Detectives specialising in the sudden unexplained deaths of children are flying to Rockhampton following the deaths of two little boys who are thought to have become trapped inside a disused car.

A crime scene remains in place at a property in Woorabinda, a remote Indigenous community 170km southwest of Rockhampton, following the boys’ deaths on Friday night.

In what police have described as a tragic accident, it is thought the two boys, aged 2 and 3, may have climbed into a disused car in the back yard of a Richardson St home and were not able to get out.

Specialist detectives will arrive in Woorabinda today to investigate the death of two children in a hot car. Picture: Emma McBryde

A police spokesman said on Sunday an investigation centre had been set up at Rockhampton police station.

Specialist officers from the Crime and Intelligence Command – including detectives from the Child Trauma Unit – were being flown from Brisbane to assist with the investigation.

The Courier-Mail is not suggesting the boys were victims of abuse or neglect.

Detective Superintendent Darrin Shadlow said on Saturday there were adults home at the time the children came to be in the car but that it was not in view of the house.

Det Supt Shadlow said early investigations suggested the boys had died from heat-related stress.

The temperature in Woorabinda on Friday reached 33.7C.

Police at the scene in Woorabinda near Rockhampton at the weekend. Picture: Emma McBryde

He said it was not known how long the children were in the car before the alarm was raised.

Community members found the two-year-old boy unconscious and not breathing on the back seat of the car around 6.30pm.

The little boy was driven to the Woorabinda Hospital where hospital staff and paramedics attempted CPR.

He was declared dead before a rescue helicopter sent to the town could land.

Police and paramedics then returned to the home around 9.15pm where they discovered a three-year-old in the same car.

Woorabinda is remote Indigenous community 170km southwest of Rockhampton. Picture: Geordi Offord

CPR was attempted but the child had died.

“The second child was lying down in the rear footwell of the vehicle and wasn’t seen by the residents when they located the first child,” Det Supt Shadlow said.

The two little boys were related but not brothers. One had been staying in Woorabinda and one had been visiting.

According to the Queensland Police Service, the child trauma unit is a group of “highly trained investigators … often deployed across the state to assist regional and metropolitan investigations … to provide additional capability to these often complex investigations”.

They investigate the sudden, unexplained deaths of children, as well as serious injuries and deaths resulting from suspected child abuse and neglect.