Search for missing Townsville brothers ends in tragedy

They were walking side by side in the sunshine, two young brothers heading off for an afternoon play.

A CCTV still of the brothers heading towards the river. Picture: Queensland Police

They were walking side-by-side in the sun, two young brothers heading off for an afternoon play.

Jhulio and Barak, 3 and 5, would never make it home, their submerged bodies found just ­metres from each other in Townsville’s Ross River yesterday after a night of frantic searching.

Police said there were no suspicious circumstances, adding the boys drowned in a tragic case of misadventure.

CCTV footage had captured the pair strolling towards the river along Brett Street in the suburb of Cranbrook at 5.30pm on Monday, barefoot or in thongs and ­oblivious to the danger ahead.

Jhulio was wearing dark blue shorts and Barak was in his red, white and blue Cranbrook State School uniform.

They were “frequent users of the river”, known to swim there and to play on the foreshore with other children, detective senior sergeant David Miles said. “They were located in very close proximity to each other,” Sergeant Miles said. “They were in a small, cutaway area in the river. From the recent flood events, it’s quite deep and quite a steep bank and there’s some vegetation there.”

According to relatives, the boys had slipped out of the sight of their mother, Leeann Eatts, while playing at home.

When she realised they were missing she ran to the water and started screaming. She was next to where their bodies would later be found, but did not see them.

The alarm was raised with police at 6.30pm. On Facebook, Ms Eatts had written that it was her boys’ routine to play with children living four houses down each day. It was “totally out of character” for them to disappear.

“I got eight police cars at my house and everyone on foot looking for them,” she wrote.

“They just walked off. Please help Townsville.”

Later, with police searching by helicopter, in cars, on motorbikes and on foot, she said the boys still could not be found. She was “so tired and empty”.

Police made an urgent appeal for the public’s help shortly before 10pm and issued an amber alert an hour later, saying the boys were at serious risk.

About 40 police, 30 SES volunteers and dozens of residents searched through the night, until the discovery of the bodies.

Families left flowers and toys at the river’s edge. Premier ­Annastacia Palaszczuk said the “hearts of all Queenslanders go out to their family and community for this unimaginable and heartbreaking loss”.