Davidson deaths: Mum wanted to leave Australia and return to Colombia for help with kids
DEVOTED mother Maria Lutz was preparing to leave her husband and return to Colombia with her autistic children when he is believed to have gassed the family in a suspected murder-suicide.
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DEVOTED mother Maria Lutz was preparing to leave her husband and return to Colombia with her autistic children when he is believed to have gassed the family in a suspected murder-suicide.
Ms Lutz, 43, had been struggling to juggle the pressures of living in a country far from home, while meeting the daily medical and therapy challenges of two deaf and non-verbal children.
And with husband Fernando Marnique spending huge swathes of time in Asia working, she appeared to crack under the strain of managing her “little angels” and announced weeks ago she was quitting the Northern Beaches, where the couple had lived since 2005, to return to Bogota to seek help from family.
On Monday Ms Lutz, her two children and husband were found gassed to death in their Davidson home. Police suspect Mr Marnique carried out the murder-suicide.
Claims overnight that Manrique had contacted pro-euthanasia organisation Exit International have proven to be false however with campaigner Philip Nitschke now saying there had not been any contact.
Dr Nitschke says a man by the name of Manrique from Sydney had contacted him about purchasing his euthanasia book.
“(It was) a person of that surname but it was a different Christian name (that) made contact trying to acquire the book,” Dr Nitschke told 2GB Radio on Thursday.
Dr Nitschke had earlier told The Australian the dead Sydney father had a digital version of his book.
“When I was first contacted I was away from the database and I said ‘yes we had had contact with a person of that name’,” Dr Nitschke said.
“The information we have suggests strongly that this was a different person of the same names.” While he conceded the deaths of the children was a concern, no one should judge unless they’d walked in someone else’s shoes.
“If people for whatever reason make a decision they want to end their lives, that’s a decision they make themselves,” he said.
“It’s a tragedy no matter how you look at it.”
Her desperation to quit Australia drove a wedge between the pair who also fought over how best to raise their two children Elisa, 11, and Martin, 10.
With a stable career as executive director of technology and business outsourcing company Drake Business Logistics, Manrique insisted on staying and aspired to launch his own business aimed at outsourcing technology for the banking sector.
A scare earlier this year when Elisa left the house and was found five hours later in a nearby park, highlighted the growing problems ahead and confirmed Maria’s desire to return home.
A close friend, who asked not to be named, told The City Paper in Bogota: “With a marriage struggling over constant worries of the future of their severely autistic children, María Claudia wanted to return to Colombia.
“The children could not travel due to their health issues on a 14-hour flight and in order to comfort María Claudia, her family would visit Australia once-a-year.”
The friend added: “She was going home this year, she decided.”
The shock deaths of the family, including their German shepherd, appears to have been a meticulously planned murder-suicide involving carbon monoxide.
Police investigators of the Northern Beaches have unearthed an “elaborate gas network” connected to two cylinders outside the home in Davidson that Manrique had built himself.
It is believed the web of pipes filtered the gas into the rooms wiping out the entire family.
Maria was found in one room with their daughter, while their son was found in another room alone.
Manrique was found on his own in another room.
A day before the bodies were discovered, on Monday morning, Manrique was seen on the roof of the four-bedroom home on Sir Thomas Mitchell Drive with power tools.
It is thought he had been rigging up the system to pump gas into the rooms.
Police have not been able to rule out a murder suicide pact with his wife.
Maria and Manrique knew each other as young students within in the private school circles of the Gimnasianos — girls from the exclusive Gimnasio Feminino and boys at Gimnasio Campestre.
She married her childhood sweetheart and, according to a close friend, was a “top honour student” who excelled in law studies at prestigious Rosario University in Bogotá.
The friend told The City Paper: “Maria Claudia had met her perfect match and seemed very much in love before the children were born.”
They left Colombia after Manrique was accepted for an MBA at Macquarie University in Sydney, and in 2005, the young couple moved to Australia.
That year the couple welcomed their first born Elisa in May and Martin in August 2006. Both children were diagnosed with severe autistic disabilities.
The everyday strain of raising children with significant disabilities appears to have affected their marriage causing Manrique to “become distant” and Maria to feel isolated, recalled another friend.
Warren Hopley, acting principal of St Lucy’s where the children were school, revealed on Monday at a press conference: “I don’t think she slept for many hours of the night because of the difficulties.”
María described her children to friends as “very special little angels” who taught her to look at the world “differently.”
She told friends Elisa and Martin saw life simply without complications.
“They are totally honest and direct. There are no social rules,” she old one.
Friend Peta Rostirola said Maria had been looking forward to getting financial help from the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
“She even felt guilty for taking that, she was just the most selfless person,” she said.
If you are distressed by this story, contact Lifeline Australia: 13 11 14
AUTISM: WHAT IS IT?
* Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are lifelong developmental disabilities characterised by marked difficulties in social interaction and communication, and restricted and repetitive interests and behaviours.
* The word ‘spectrum’ is used because the range and severity of the difficulties people with an ASD experience can vary widely. Asperger’s syndrome is part of the spectrum.
* About one in 100 Australians are on the autism spectrum — around 230,000 people. It is four times more common in boys than girls.
* There is no single known cause — and no cure, although early intervention in a person’s life can minimise the impact on their functioning.
* People with the condition can present with a mix of indicators, which might include tantrums, unusual interests or attachments, unusual movements such as hand-flapping or toe-walking, extreme difficulty coping with change.
* They might be afraid of everyday sounds, find eye contact uncomfortable, respond to certain sounds but ignore a human voice and avoid social contact.
* The cliche of all people with autism being Rainman-type geniuses is not true but they can be exceptionally creative, able to solve complex problems and have outstanding memory for detail.
* Albert Einstein, Mozart, Stanley Kubrick and Andy Warhol are all thought to have lived with autism. Celebrities who have the condition include actors Daryl Hannah and Dan Aykroyd, singer Susan Boyle, Courtney Love, musician Ladyhawke and American Idol singer James Durbin.
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