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Husband charged with murder after wife’s body found in house fire
By Catherine Strohfeldt
A 45-year-old man has been charged with murder after his wife’s body was found in the charred remains of their family home west of Brisbane.
Firefighters were called to a fire about 3am on Tuesday at the rural home on Strack Road in Geham, north of Toowoomba, to find it “fully engulfed”.
It took crews more than two hours to bring the inferno under control.
After initial searches of the house, police and fire investigators found the body of Louise Hunt.
Police have yet to formally identify her body.
Her husband, 45-year-old Cameron Hunt, was found almost 200 kilometres away in Redcliffe.
On Tuesday evening he was charged with one count each of murder (domestic violence) and arson.
Cameron Hunt is charged with murder (domestic violence) and arson after Louise’s body was found in the fire.Credit: Facebook
Hunt’s matter was mentioned at Toowoomba Magistrates Court on Wednesday, where his Legal Aid lawyer requested the case be adjourned for three months.
The matter was adjourned until July 16.
Police Superintendent George Marchesini confirmed the home’s residents included two young children, who were “safe, well and accounted for”.
“There was no hospitalisation of the children. And all I can say at this point in time, look, they’re young children within that house,” he said.
Police were still investigating the cause of the blaze, which destroyed the rural property.
Aerial footage showed the roof of the house caved in and the structure gutted.
“It’s a terrible situation when you have an incident like this, and what I mean by that is any person who’s deceased in a dwelling from the result of a fire,” Marchesini said.
The remains of the house after a suspicious fire in Geham on Tuesday.Credit: Nine News
Police have established Operation X-Ray Geo involving detectives from the Toowoomba Criminal Investigation Branch and the Homicide Investigation Unit.
The Queensland Fire Department said at least six crews were initially called to the scene.
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