‘Double homicide’: Boys found dead, grandmother in mental health facility

Police said the 66-year-old woman, who had moved to the small NSW town of Coonabarabran with her two grandchildren 11 months ago, would be facing “serious charges”.

Images of the scene at Coonabarabran where two young boys died. Source: Antony Hands

Police said the 66-year-old woman, who had moved to the small NSW town of Coonabarabran with her two grandchildren 11 months ago, would be facing “serious charges”.

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Police are treating the deaths of two young children, who were under the sole care of their grandmother, as a “double murder”.

Western Region Commander Assistant Commissioner Andrew Holland said the 66-year-old woman, who had moved to Coonabarabran in the NSW Central West with her two grandchildren 11 months ago, would likely face “serious charges”.

He would not confirm what those charges would be, given she was in a mental health facility under police guard.

Yet Assistant Commissioner Holland did say police were treating the death of the two boys, aged 6 and 7, as a “double murder” and that there were “no other suspects” at the moment.

“She will be detained (at the mental health facility) for the near future, until she improves. Upon release, she will then be handed back to police custody, where it is likely she will face serious charges,” he said.

The woman was arrested on Monday afternoon after police forced entry into the home on the outskirts of town and discovered the bodies of the boys in different rooms. The woman had called the Department of Communities and Justice to report the deaths before she tried to kill herself.

“She did try to self-harm in a way that was obviously to take her and the children out,” Assistant Commissioner Holland said.

He said DCJ would need to answer questions about why she was “deemed suitable to manage those young people”, and said those suffering from mental health issues needed to make contact with health services and speak out.

Assistant Commissioner Holland said there were “no weapons involved” but would not confirm the boys’ cause of death.

The woman was “known to police but not adversely”, he said. There was only one other matter previously reported a number of years ago, and it was not directly linked to the grandmother.

He praised the actions of the “heroic” young police officers who attended the scene.

“It’s a confronting tragedy that shouldn’t have occurred. We’ve got two young kids who were obviously being looked after by their maternal grandmother in small country town ... These things shock small country towns. The death of one child is bad enough, the death of two is just incomprehensible,” he said.

“The town needs to band together now and understand this has happened. They need to make a concerted effort to get back, and ... the action of the young police officers involved has been above heroic ... They need to be commended for what they did.”

The 66-year-old grandmother remains under police guard after the bodies of the two boys, aged 6 and 7, were found. Picture Antony Hands

The biological parents of the children had been notified and they were “not (doing) well”, he said.

Warrumbungle Shire councillor Kodi Brady called the children “two little firecracker kids”.

“They were amongst it all, 100 miles an hour, involved in soccer, karate, wild as march hares and cute as buttons! So devastating for all,” he wrote on Facebook.

The boys’ local karate instructor Peter Wilkie said they were “good kids” who loved coming to training in the afternoons.

“They were pretty high-needs kids, but they were quite good. They did karate OK. Kids are kids ... They loved doing the stuff we had to do, like anybody else ... All the kids knew them, not like they were strangers,” he said.

Mr Wilkie said he was “surprised” the grandmother, who “seemed to be quite a reasonable sort of lady”, had been arrested.

“She helped out with the class, she didn’t shirk it. She worked with all the kids in the class, not just (her two) ... If they weren’t coming, nan used to call and let us know. It’s a bloody shame, they were taken away too early,” he said.

He said the grandmother told him one of the boys had been diagnosed with cancer when he was little.

Locals said the children had been involved in many sporting clubs, and the effect on the town would be “massive”.

On Tuesday morning, extra staff were called to the local public school the boys attended.

The children were living with their grandmother after being removed from their parents’ care a number of years ago and were in a what’s called kinship care.

Assistant Commissioner Holland told 2GB radio station the “death of two innocent children will have a long-lasting impact on the town and all those involved”.

“The young police involved have obviously been distressed severely by this incident, the sight of a six and seven-year-old boy deceased inside the house,” he said.