Hannah Clarke’s family left ‘exhausted’ fighting ‘disgusting human being’
The Brisbane father who torched a family car with his three young children and estranged wife inside, killing them all, walked free last month after facing court for the breach of a domestic violence order, The Courier-Mail has learned.
Police & Courts
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THE Brisbane father who torched a family car with his three young children and estranged wife inside was charged with breaching a domestic violence order in the weeks before he murdered his young family, police have confirmed.
The Courier-Mail can reveal Rowan Baxter appeared in court on the charge on January 29 and was free to walk in the community.
He was due to face Holland Park Magistrates again on April 8.
Camp Hill car fire: Tributes flow for mum ‘so incredibly full of laughter’
Editorial: Unthinkable crime breaks our hearts
Killer dad Rowan Baxter was leading a reclusive life since separating from wife
How the unspeakable tragedy on a quiet Camp Hill street unfolded
Addressing the media, Detective Inspector Mark Thompson said the deaths had caused a “palpable sense of grief and mourning amongst the community” and that police had been working to support Hannah, along with the Brisbane Domestic Violence Centre.
“It’s also shown us at this point in time there’s a rising sense of anger that in this day and age, the scourge of domestic and family violence still can lead to the death of five people,” he said.
Det Insp Thompson said the horrific deaths had created a great deal of commentary in the public, including from “scorned members of the community” with opinions about partners driven to extremes.
“To put it bluntly, there are probably people out there in the community that are trying to decide which side, so to speak, to take in this investigation,” he said.
“(For example) is this an issue of a woman suffering significant domestic violence and her and her children perishing at the hands of her husband? Or is this an instance of a husband being driven too far by issues that he’s suffered by certain circumstances?”
Forced to clarify, Det Insp Thompson said people making public comments should contact police if they had real information.
“I’m not leaning towards that at all,” he said.
“What I was trying to illustrate is what ‘you do see in public commentary and general responses from the community that people may make those allegations’.
“Maybe they are scorned members of the community themselves that have had dealings with domestic violence in the past and they’re the sorts of things that they say in response to this … If there are people out there making those comments that I have just described, come forward with substantiated claims … it is extremely critical that people come forward.”
Part of his comment was debated on national radio after only small snippets of his press conference were tweeted and shared on social media.
Det Insp Thompson said domestic and family violence would not be tolerated.
“There is no excuse for perpetration of violence in our community, and there is certainly no excuse for perpetration of violence amongst families in behind closed doors,” he said.
“Both sides of the family - the husband, the wife, the mother, the father, the children, all deserve to go about their lives without being in fear of their spouse or their parents … They have the right to go about their lives without the fear of controlling behaviours or other acts that are considered domestic and family violence.”
According to police, calls for service to domestic and family violence support services rise significantly following traumatic and public acts of domestic violence.
“That just goes to show that there are people out there suffering in silence,” Det Insp said.
“If you know something, you must speak up. If you are a victim, come forward. I know there are a myriad of challenges around that, I understand there are a myriad of reasons why victims do not come forward. And my understanding and sympathies are with those people.
“We are committed to assisting people, we are committed to fighting the fight to eradicate domestic and family violence.”
Mourner Barbara Sotiriadis said what happened on Raven St yesterday was an act of “terror”.
“We hear of domestic violence in Australia every week,” she said.
“But this wasn’t just domestic violence this was the annihilation of a family.
“When you come here and you see how the bitumen bubbled and you of those three children that she would have had buckled into the seats. They had nowhere to go, and he knew that.
“And how he attempted to stop people trying to help his wife. Yes this is domestic violence. But when it gets to this point it is just beyond that.”
Ms Sotiriadis said it was the first time she had visited the scene of a crime and she just “wanted to bear witness, I guess.”
“I think we’re all shocked in Australia today,” she said.
“Everybody that I’ve spoken to today is shaken. We’re all anxious we’re all feeling very, very sick.”
She urged men to seek help if they had thoughts of harming their family.
“So we could understand what’s happening in this country, and help families because a whole family got wiped out on the street yesterday,” she said.
“This was an incredibly violent act on every level, we just haven’t seen this before. It was terror.”
Leezette White said she came to the scene because she didn’t know what else to do.
“That’s all I’ve thought about all day. Those little kids in the car, the last think they saw is what their father did to them,” she said. “It’s horrendous.”
Another woman came down “just as a mother.”
“To see those little ones go like that,” she said.
“It’s terrible to think someone could do that they had their whole lives ahead of them.”
In the months leading up to his horrific acts on Wednesday, Baxter had kidnapped one of the children and fled interstate, and even resorted to hiding in their grandparents’ garden.
The 42-year-old, who also died at the scene of the tragedy on Raven St in Camp Hill, had been on a “downward spiral” following his split from Hannah Clarke in November, 2019.
In a series of messages obtained by The Courier-Mail, a family member of Rowan Baxter repeatedly reassured Hannah she’d done the right thing in leaving.
“I’m so glad I got out when I did,” Hannah wrote to the woman earlier this month.
“I’m OK, struggling, but I know I’ve made the right decision.
“I’m safe, I’m with my parents who are very, very normal. I’m just so glad I got out when I did. And I’m so glad you reached out to me.”
Hannah’s parents, who live on the street where the shocking incident occurred, said their daughter had been tired of 11 years in a controlling and abusive marriage.
“She had to get the kids and just go without saying anything, because he was such a control freak and would get into her headspace and she would give in,” Mr Clarke told The Daily Mail.
“He kidnapped (one of the kids) on Boxing Day and took her interstate for four days until the police got her back.”
“He stayed with a mate who was an absolute animal and sent Hannah a disgusting email blaming her for everything.”
Baxter was reportedly under orders to remain more than 20 metres away from Hannah following an earlier assault.
“We still don’t know how he got so close. He’s obviously ambushed her somehow, I’m sure she would not have stopped for him, she would be more likely to try to run over him,” Mr Clarke said.
“He was going through her phone and tracking her whereabouts. It was really scary,” Mrs Clarke said.
Other members of Hannah’s heartbroken family have spoken about the attempts made to keep the mum and her three children safe from a “monster”.
Hannah’s heartbroken brother Nat Clarke revealed eight years after the couple had become engaged, married and their romance had turned into a nightmare, his sister had made a hopeful escape from her husband.
“My mum and dad … have given every little thing they own to help my sister try and get away from this monster,” he wrote on Facebook.
Hannah, 31, sadly died on Wednesday night, following an horrific car fire that also killed her three children, Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4 and Trey, 3.
Her estranged husband, Rowan Baxter, doused his family in petrol before setting their car alight. He died at the scene from self-inflicted wounds.
The tragedy happened just a street away from Hannah’s parents home. She and the children had been living with her mum and dad, Sue and Lloyd Clarke, since she separated from her husband.
In an emotional social media post, Hannah’s sister-in-law Stacey Roberts said Mr and Mrs Clarke had “exhausted themselves to try and help Hannah escape this monster”.
Ms Roberts is fundraising to pay for the family’s funeral costs and to help support the Clarkes.
As of 10am on Thursday more than $53,500 had been raised.
“As you may be aware my beautiful sister in-law and my nieces and nephew had their lives taken by a disgusting human being they called their father,” Ms Roberts wrote.
“For all those who knew Hannah or had even just met her once would know how much of a beautiful soul she was, her children where (sic) her life.”
A shocked neighbour told The Courier-Mail that Mr Baxter survived the fire, but dropped dead at the scene after he stabbed himself in the torso.
Aaron Snell, who lives just metres from where the car burst into flames, said he first thought the incident was a road rage hit and run before he took a few seconds to understand the magnitude of the situation.
“As I came to the front after calling Triple 0, I saw her (Hannah). She was smoking, her body was smoking and on fire,” Mr Snell said.
“They’d pulled her out and they were hosing her down on the road, trying to put the flames out.
“And he (Rowan) was across the road.”
“And then he jumped into the full flaming car, into the front seat to grab a knife. He stabbed himself in the chest.
“That’s when he’s dropped to his knees and went down head first, then he jumped up again, and then he fell flat.”
A witness to the horrific scenes on a quiet suburban Brisbane street told of the look in the eye of a burning Hannah as she lay on the ground, being hosed down by a bystander, after jumping out of a torched car in which her three children died.
Hannah had been heard screaming “he’s poured petrol on me” as she leapt out of the deliberately lit car, with traumatised witnesses reporting seeing skin peeling away from her body.
Witness Andrew Sinclair, who was working from home about 100 metres away from the incident, said the look on Hannah Baxter’s face is one that will stay with him for a long time.
“She was looking directly at me, just staring,” Mr Sinclair said.
“The look of hurt looking straight at me, and seeing her clothing being burnt with her skin coming off her body, it was an awful thing to see.”
Brent Ferguson, a friend of Hannah’s parents, also shared a look into the family’s world.
“All of us (at the Carina Gardens Dental) have watched the turmoil Sue and Lloyd have gone through watching their daughter and grandkids at the hand of this monster,” he wrote.
“You are so strong Hannah. Rest Easy with your beautiful littlies.”
Meanwhile, Rowan Baxter’s Facebook page has been flooded with angry comments, news.com.au reports.
“Hope you rot in hell you putrid f***in’ scum. Too much of a coward to only take yourself. Dog,” one woman wrote.
Another man said, “You piece of s***, killing your kids because you’re not man enough to deal with life, you are scum.”
One wrote, “Rot in hell for eternity you evil c***.”
The settings on Baxter’s Facebook page had been changed to “memorialised”, which is an action usually requested by family members when a loved one dies.
A statement on top of his page read: “Remembering Rowan Baxter. We hope that the people who love Rowan will find comfort in visiting his profile to remember and celebrate his life.”
If you or someone you know needs help, contact Lifeline on 131144, or triple-0 in an emergency.
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