Australia: Australian police said today they had arrested the mother of most of eight children reportedly stabbed to death in the northern city of Cairns, as vigils were held to mourn the tragedy.
Officers have not revealed the cause of death of the children, aged between 18 months and 14 years, but said knives were found at the house where the bodies were discovered on Friday morning.
Flowers and teddy bears were laid near the crime scene and church services were held overnight in Cairns for the killings, which have shocked the community.
The 37-year-old mother of several of the children involved in this incident has been arrested for murder overnight and is currently under police guard at the Cairns Base Hospital,” detective inspector Bruno Asnicar said reporters.
The woman, believed to be the mother of seven of the children and the aunt of the eighth, has not been charged, but Queensland Police said she was assisting them with their inquiries.
Flowers and stuffed toys are laid opposite the scene where eight children ranging from babies to teenagers were found dead in a house in the northern Australian city of Cairns early on December 20, 2014.
It’s like a bomb has gone off,” he said. “Everyone is in shock.” Acting Assistant Police Commissioner Paul Taylor said the impact of the deaths would be felt across Australia. There will be people who have never, ever been to Cairns who will be touched by this tragedy,” he said.
Reports said a woman was heard screaming in the house on Thursday night, with Brisbane’s Courier-Mail saying she was heard to shout: “Don’t let them take away from us. God bless us. Forgive me for what I’ll do.”
One neighbour told the paper the woman was having “a bad night” on Thursday. I heard her fighting with someone this morning about 4:00 am” on Friday (1800 GMT Thursday), she said. “I last saw her about 6:00 am, and then it was quiet.
“I saw her moving stuff out of the house yesterday. She was putting furniture and stuff out the front on the street, giving stuff away to family and friends. She said she was changing her life. She wasn’t well but she loved those kids.”
A 13-year-old girl who is friends with one of the children that lived in the house said she had walked her friend home on Thursday night after shopping and had met the mother, who had given her money for a taxi ride home. She was saying stuff about God and other stuff,” she told Australian Associated Press. “She said: ‘Papa God gave me the power to do anything’.”
Bureau Report
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