Kids killed in horror car fire in Perth fire named
The mum who died in a suspected murder-suicide in Perth “was fine” in the days before the shocking tragedy, close friends have said.
The mother who died in a suspected murder-suicide in Perth’s southern suburbs on Monday “was fine” in the days before the shocking tragedy, close friends have said.
Abiyah, 10, and Aiden Selvan, eight, and their mother Selvamma Doreswamy, 40, were tragically killed in a car fire at John Graham Reserve in Coogee.
Their bodies were found in the back seat of a burnt-out red hatchback.
The children’s devastated father Selvan Govindhan Vairavan had left a day earlier to visit family in the US, and arrived back home in Perth on Wednesday night.
Speaking to The West Australian, close friend of the family Sam Revington said there had been no signs that anything was troubling the couple.
“Nobody understands why this happened,” he said.
Mr Revington and his wife had visited Ms Doreswamy, a nurse at Fiona Stanley Hospital, at the family’s Canning Vale home last Wednesday.
“She gave us coffee and everything. Everything was normal,” he said.
“They were really happy in Perth. That’s why we are really shocked. We couldn’t find any reason for this to happen. They had a good life. She was a lovely lady and he is a nice man.
“He cared so much for his family – I know that.”
Mr Revington said he would support Selvan as best he could.
“I don’t know what to tell him. I don’t have the words to explain or comfort him. But I’m going to see him tomorrow or tonight,” he said.
Tributes have begun to pour for Abiyah and Aiden, with flowers, photos and tennis balls covered in heartfelt messages part of a moving memorial outside their school in Southern River.
Providence Christian College principal Bill Innes told Nine News Perth the school, in the city’s southeastern suburbs, was devastated by the news.
“You’re never prepared for something like this,” he said.
“We have a thing called a critical incident policy and it sits in a folder somewhere in the back there and you hope to never pull that out. We had to with this.
“This was so totally unexpected, they were a lovely family and I guess we don’t understand. It’s not our place to understand, but it came as a huge, huge shock.”
One handwritten note described Abiyah as being the “brightest light of the world”.
“Remember I always love you. It pains me to know I will never see you smile, touch you, laugh with you, and even wave to you,” one of her friends wrote.
“Your secrets! Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone in honour of you. I will never forget you. See you in heaven.”
A message dedicated to Aiden simply read, “I will miss you.”
Ethnic Communities Council of WA president Suresh Rajan told WAtoday the tragedy – and the recent familicide in Huntingdale in which a Sri Lankan father murdered his two children before taking his own life – highlighted the lack of culturally appropriate services in Perth.
“The government doesn’t fund any trans-cultural mental health services or networks in Western Australia and what we’ve found from all of the work we have done is that there’s a higher propensity to suicide in some cultural communities,” he said.
“In my language, there is only one word that described mental health challenges, it’s a word that says you’re mad, so that stigma causes people not to access mental health counselling because it’s an admission that you’re mad.
“We don’t have the enlightened approach that Western cultures have in regard to issues of depression, they just simply say, ‘if you’ve got mental health issues than you’re mad’.
“It needs someone who understands, is from that culture, to be able to deal with it, so you need a councillor who is from that culture.”
‘Unlikely’ a third party was involved
Western Australian Police said on Tuesday it was “very unlikely” a third party was involved.
“There’s a lot that we don’t know and it’s very, very tragic,” Major Crime Division Detective-Inspector Quentin Flatman told reporters.
“It hasn’t been ruled out, but it’s very, very unlikely that there is a third party involved.
“Sadly, it has the appearance of … three parties have died in the rear of a car via fire that has been started by one of those parties.
“There is no need for anyone to be concerned within the community as to any other person being at large or walking around the community.”
Community in ‘a state of shock’
The father of the children had left for a trip to the US on Sunday evening and is now back in Australia following the tragedy.
He was told of the deaths during a layover at Doha Airport, in Qatar.
“His reaction was what we would all expect in the circumstances. He is currently on an aircraft coming home so he can look for answers himself,” Det-Insp Flatman said.
He added the relationship between the couple was “a normal, healthy, happy” one.
“The father is in shock. If this couldn’t get any worse, that poor man will have to be on a plane alone,” Det-Insp Flatman said.
The family were well-known at Canning Vale’s Tsaparah Tabernacle church, The West Australian reports.
The church community was “in a state of shock” in the wake of the tragic incident, a church spokesman told the paper.
“We don’t have an understanding of what’s going on, we are puzzled and completely shocked at this stage,” the spokesman said.
Neighbours who live in the same street as the family, south of Perth near Coogee, told The West they were shocked and saddened to learn the family-of-four had been involved in such a horrific incident.
“I saw them over the weekend and they seemed happy,” one woman said.
“The dad would do gardening and the kids would play out the front. They were a really nice, happy family. It’s just so sad and tragic.”
Police leaving ‘no stone unturned’
Det-Insp Flatman said emergency services only realised there were bodies in the car after firefighters had extinguished the blaze.
Police initially confirmed at least one body was found in the vehicle, with the scene now the subject of a major homicide investigation. The car was towed to a police forensic holding yard Monday evening with the bodies inside.
More than a dozen officers worked throughout the night to determine to begin to understand how the tragedy unfolded.
Det-Insp Flatman said the mother and children were last seen about 11am on Monday in Canning Vale. Ms Doreswamy was reportedly seen with friends.
Witnesses have reported hearing what sounded like gunshots before the fire began, with police saying they do not know yet whether the fire was the sole cause of death.
Det-Insp Flatman said gun-like sounds were consistent with noises typically made by burning cars.
“We suspect, which we will confirm during our inquiries, that the popping or the gunshot sounds that were heard was the fire consuming the motor vehicle itself,” he said.
Det-Insp Flatman added police were committed to leaving “no stone unturned” in the wake of the tragedy, which he said was all the more upsetting given it concerned children.
At the current stage of the investigation, officers had yet to determine any “rationale and reason” for why the incident occurred.
Extended family members who offered assistance to police had been “pivotal” in early parts of the investigation, Det-Insp Flatman said.
– with NCA NewsWire
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