Bodies of man, 38, child, 2, found in East Lismore home

A father rigged up a deadly poisoning system inside a Lismore unit to kill himself and his toddler son during a planned custody visit.

Police in College St, East Lismore following the discovery of the bodies of a man, 38, and child, 2. Picture: Cath Piltz.

A father rigged up a deadly poisoning system inside a Lismore unit to kill himself and his toddler son during a planned custody visit.

The tragedy, which police are treating as a murder-suicide, was discovered when the two-year-old boy failed to arrive back at his mother’s home as planned on Sunday afternoon.

An hour had passed and the mother couldn’t contact the boy’s father whose phone was switched off, so she feared the worst and called police.

Officers forced entry to the 38-year-old man’s College St unit in East Lismore, around 9.30pm, and made the horrific discovery of two bodies.

“A more tragic event you wouldn’t come across,” NSW Police assistant commissioner Peter Thurtell said.

Police in College St, East Lismore following the discovery of the bodies of a man, 38, and child, 2. Picture: Cath Piltz

Police in College St, East Lismore following the discovery of the bodies of a man, 38, and child, 2. Picture: Cath Piltz

Police said the boy was with his father for the day only, as part of a planned custody arrangement.

“The mother raised concerns with the fact that they were due to hand over the child at 4.30pm, and by 5.30pm she had contacted the police and we went around to the residence and made the discovery,” he said.

Assistant commissioner Thurtell said the man was known to police due to a history of domestic violence matters, however, “not significant issues”.

Flowers placed at the scene. Picture: Cath Piltz

The Daily Telegraph has been told crime scene specialists found equipment and a set up inside the small unit consistent with carbon monoxide poisoning. A post mortem examination will be carried out this week to determine the exact cause of the father and son’s deaths.

“My understanding is there was no weapon involved...the father has created a system where both he and the child passed away as a result of the system he set up,” assistant commissioner Thurtell said.

Police found two bodies - a man, 38, and child, 2, at a College Street address in Lismore on Sunday night.

Distraught neighbours said they saw the boy occasionally in the street, but did not hear anything untoward or sinister on Sunday. The unit block had recently been refurbished after it was extensively damaged in the 2022 floods.

“I don’t think the child went there all that much...but I did see him with (the child) not that long ago but it all looked normal enough,” one resident said.

A three-wheel bike was parked in the carport beneath the unit which neighbours said belonged to the boy.

Police in College St, East Lismore following the discovery of the bodies of a man, 38, and child, 2. Picture: Cath Piltz

The tragedy came amid a statewide police blitz targeting domestic violence, as part of Operation Amarok VI.

On social media, people were rallying around the boy’s distraught mother, as police, too, said she was being offered every bit of support she needed.

“To that poor, poor mother...my heart breaks for you,” one person wrote.

Another said: “Unimaginable what that mum is going through. Rest easy, little one”.

Crime scene officers dressed in protective clothing and masks spent the day at the unit, carrying out evidence bags and closely examining doors and windows to the property.

A local resident said the Lismore community was already struggling from the devastation of the floods and the havoc it created on people’s lives.

“You wonder how much one community has to go through...so much heartbreak for people,” the man said.

Originally published as Bodies of man, 38, child, 2, found in East Lismore home