Killer left letters with friend who came forward after double murder
THE father who executed his teenage son and daughter as they huddled in a bedroom left a series of letters for his ex-wives and relatives to be opened after his death.
NSW
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THE father who executed his teenage son and daughter as they huddled in a bedroom left a series of letters for his ex-wives and relatives to be opened after his death.
John Edwards chased Jack and Jennifer Edwards through the home where they lived with their mother — his ex-wife Olga Edwards — shot them, then fled and killed himself.
Police believe the letters are more evidence of the meticulous planning Edwards, 67, had made before his unspeakable act of bloody cowardice on Thursday evening.
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It is understood Mr Edwards gave those letters to a friend in recent days with instructions to deliver them if something happened to him.
It was only after seeing news of the murders that the friend came forward to police with the unopened letters.
It is not clear what was written but police sources say in hindsight the correspondence would have raised concern.
Olga Edwards, 36, yesterday returned to the West Pennant Hills home where she had discovered that Jack, 15, and 13-year-old Jennifer had been killed by their father.
Police and friends supported Ms Edwards as she stepped through the door with detectives.
Mr Edwards, a former financial adviser with a string of failed relationships, was not meant to know where his ex-wife, originally from Russia, and children were living.
After hiring a car, presumably to avoid being noticed by his children, Mr Edwards turned up at their Hull Rd home about 5pm.
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Edwards opened fire with two handguns he had purchased legally earlier this year. He was in and out of the home in a matter of minutes.
Mrs Edwards, a solicitor at a Woolwich law firm, returned home from work moments later to find her house swarming with police and her children dead.
Edwards then drove to his home in Normanhurst and shot himself.
Mrs Edwards yesterday released photos of her children, who friends say she loved and cared for unconditionally. Jennifer, a keen ice skater, was an academically gifted student at Gosford High School.
“She had a laugh every day with us,” school friend Peggy Deng said on Saturday.
Jack, a Pennant Hills High School student, was a keen AFL player having played for both the Pennant Hills Demons Junior Club and the Westbrook Juniors.
“He was always kicking a ball around,” former teammate Sean Allen said. “We didn’t know what was happening in his life.”
Mrs and Mr Edwards had been involved in divorce and custody proceedings over the past two years with a settlement reached in February.
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It is understood Mr Edwards was not allowed to see his children and Mrs Edwards ensured the location of her family was secret.
Questions are likely to be asked about how Mr Edwards, a man deemed too risky to see his children, was able to get a firearms licence.
His requests for membership were knocked back by at least three gun clubs, partially because he had been denied a firearm licence in the past.
However, Mr Edwards had been attending St Mary’s Indoor Shooting Centre recently.
It is where he collected his two guns from, shortly before killing his children.