Police discover dead 11-year-old girl in Brisbane apartment bathroom
Queensland police discovered two dead bodies on the same day and confirmed they were mother and daughter. The 11-year-old girl was found dead in the bathroom of an apartment on Dunmore Terrace in Auchenflower, inner Brisbane, at 1:40 a.m. The body of her 49-year-old mother was discovered at around 5:30 a.m. at a construction site in Toowong, about 1.5 kilometers away from Auchenflower.
Detective Acting Superintendent Geoff Sheldon said that the police came across the lifeless body of the child after they were requested by the friends of the family to carry out a security check.
"They had some concerns and we've gone around and unfortunately those concerns have been validated to the worst possible degree," he was quoted by the ABC as saying. According to him, the girl died violenty. "Every death of a child is horrendous, but this is particularly so."
Though the investigation is still at the preliminary stage, the police believe that the mother took her own life.
The 65-year-old father of the girl, who was asleep in the unit when she died, is safe. Another daughter, aged 8, was not at home when the incident happened. The father is helping the police with investigation, the police said in a statement.
"He's horrendously upset, he's with us at the moment to try to explain what has gone on in relation to the whole night's affair," the Brisbane Times quoted Sheldon as saying.
Sheryl Hall, who cleans a number of units in the apartment at Auchenflower, described the children as quiet and well-behaved. But Hall said she did not know the couple too well. She told Fairfax Media that she thinks the couple had relationship difficulties.
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