There's been a tragic discovery in
Sydney's north, with a family of
four, including two children, found
dead inside their home at Davidson.
It was the act of Fernando
and Fernando only.
There had been domestic trouble at
the house before.
That was an extreme example
of domestic violence.
Fernando Manrique today unmasked
as a cold, calculating monster.
So in October 2006,
saying there was a tragic
discovery, the the family
of Fernando Manrique and Maria
Lutz and their children, Eliza and
Martin, were discovered
gassed to death in their home.
Tell me how that story unfolded for
you.
I remember getting a call from
the desk saying
Something's going on in Davidson
in Sydney's north.
It sounds like it
might be a murder, suicide or
multiple people that have died can
go out to it.
So I drove out there and I remember
it was raining and that
blocked off most
of the street. It was quite a state
straight up to the house
and there were police everywhere,
but it was really difficult to sort
of figure out what was going on.
There were conflicting reports about
how to hit will die, how many people
had died, and then the police
did a press conference
and revealed that it was a family
Fernando and Maria
and their two children
who have died of the family dog as
well.
About 11:20 a.m.
this morning, police were
called following
a concern for welfare
to a house just a short
distance up the road.
Police eventually forced entry
to that premises and
inside they found a 43
year old female, a 44
year old male.
A 10 year old boy and 11
year old girl deceased, as
well as a large dog.
There was all kinds of sort of
unhelpful speculation about
the motives behind the death
who was involved, who wasn't
involved.
It was the act
of Fernando and Fernando only.
The
Sydney father who killed himself.
His wife and two children with
deadly gas was having an affair
in the weeks before the tragedy.
Despite crippling tax office
and credit card debts, the 44
year old was sending thousands to
his 17 year old lover
in the Philippines.
Police say in September 2016,
he formed a clear intention to kill
opening a business account with busy
buying two cylinders of deadly
carbon monoxide gas
over a few months.
I got to know Maria's
beautiful friends, and they
very bravely spoke up
about what Maria was going through
at that time, what their
relationship was like, that she had
planned to leave Fernando and
set up a life of her and her
children. And that were the
circumstances that led up to
obviously him setting up this
elaborate gas system
inside the house that essentially
killed them all while they were
sleeping.
I can confirm that both
children suffer a significant
disability.
It's just a tragic thing.
So when you arrived at that scene,
you said it was all you said.
The police held a press conference,
but you know, just to explain
to people watching who may not be in
this field, the police don't
don't give you information, do
they? Or can you, you know, for
example, you arrive at the scene,
what's to stop you?
What's to stop you stopping a police
officer walking into that scene or
trying to get in yourself and have a
look around? Or, yeah,
talk me through a bit about the
etiquette, I suppose.
Well, depends
what kind of crime
it is.
Know if we're talking about crime
scenes in general after homicide,
not including General Motors and
things like that.
You do. You do try and sort of
strike up a conversation with any
detective that walks past you in the
hope that they'd just let slip
some nugget of information.
But they run a pretty tight ship,
New South Wales police.
So they're not always willing to
share state secrets, but
usually will turn up and
especially in the initial
period after a crime Typekit in the
crime scene tape is that sort
of lingering around the crime scene,
knocking on all the neighbours
doors, asking if they heard
anything?
Looking for CCTV?
Anyone that had footage
or photos on their phone
immediately after the crime happened
and sometimes friends
of family can turn up, especially
when they don't know what's happened
there, and I've seen their friends
or family's house on the
news.
Investigators are still unsure
if Fernando intended to take his
own life as well, or whether
he was accidentally caught
in the same lethal trap
he's set to wipe out his
entire family.
That was
an extreme example of domestic
violence. We get, unfortunately, so
many domestic violence promoters in
New South Wales every single year,
and I think by having her
friends speak up
and be able to provide
like a very deep and clear
and concise insight into
what was going on in their lives
beforehand really
help people understand that this
was domestic violence.
There was no pacts.
There was no agreement.
She never would have done anything
at all to hurt her children
at all.
Yeah, I think in those situations,
especially when you're sitting down
with. People, you know, I imagine
you would you would have been
probably in their houses having cups
of tea with with people who were
probably very, very emotional
at the really tragic loss of their
their friends and then later
it came out at the inquest.
I'm not sure if you followed that,
that he had a teenage
lover on the side who he had
been making weed payments to
to this lover right before the
The act but I agree with you,
like you say, the the strength of
those people to speak up in the
aftermath of something like that,
which must be incredibly hard, but
has has really given this woman
and those those children a voice
to to and some truth
and clarity around what
actually happened.
Yeah, exactly.
And it's not always the case
in every single homicide
that we cover that family
or friends want to
speak or are willing to speak.
You know, it's different every
single situation.
But yes, certainly in this case,
they really wanted to
make sure everyone knew what
Maria and her children were really
like. They wanted to
preserve their different
memory as a journalist.
And you see it and you feel a
massive responsibility to
do that story justice, but also
a privilege in being able to
tell that story to share that story
as well.