Neighbours of murdered Queensland mum Hannah Clarke have relived the horrifying moment the woman and her three children were set ablaze by her estranged ex-husband and their desperate attempts to hose down her burning body.
The harrowing evidence comes two years after Ms Clarke and her children Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4, and Trey, 3, were murdered at the hands of her estranged ex-husband Rowan Baxter in a domestic violence killing that scarred the nation.
A long-awaited coronial inquest is now examining what more could have been done to save the young family, with multiple eyewitnesses of the horror arson attack being called to give evidence on Monday.
Ms Clarke, 31, and her three children were killed on February 19, 2020 after Baxter ambushed them outside thxjmtzywe Clarke’s family home in Camp Hill, dousing the car in petrol before it exploded.
Neighbour Michael Zemek gave evidence of hearing a “hysterical scream” on the morning Ms Clarke died as her car pulled up near his driveway.
While washing his car, Mr Zemek said Ms Clarke cried: “Call the police, call the police, he’s trying to kill me, he’s poured petrol on me.”
“Baxter had Hannah in a bear hug, he was sitting in the front seat … she was trying to get free,” he said.
Mr Zemek said Baxter appeared “controlled” and was not aggressive or violence, but said he had a “resigned look” on his face.
He said the car suddenly went “bang” as he approached.
“It was a bang and a blackness … I turned my head around briefly startled and when I looked up, the whole inside front (of the car) was ablaze,” Mr Zemek said.
“She was totally ablaze, from head to toe, in flames.
“I grabbed the hose and tried to get her to roll on the ground so I could try and extinguish the flames.”
Mr Zemek recounted Ms Clarke lamenting how she could not save her children, but did not realise the three were in the car’s back seat.
He last saw Ms Clarke on a stretcher being attended to by paramedics.
“She was more subdued, resigned to what had happened,” the witness said.
Another neighbour, Samantha Covey, gave evidence she attempted to approach the car when she learned the children were inside, but said the vehicle was “engulfed in flames”.
“I heard her say ‘My kids, someone get my kids … I can’t believe he’s done this’,” she said.
During a pre-inquest hearing last year, the court was told Baxter’s actions were not a “sudden or snap decision” as he had captured on CCTV purchasing the jerry can and black cable ties days before the attack.
Baxter had borrowed a car from a family member in order to avoid being detected by Ms Clarke outside her parents’ house.
The inquest will examine any contact Ms Clarke and Baxter made with domestic violence services prior to the horrific murder.
It will also examine the responses from police and domestic violence services to Ms Clarke’s complaints of Baxter’s controlling behaviours.
The inquest, before deputy state coroner Jane Bentley, is expected to run for eight days.
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