3 dead as car drives off wharf in Australia

  • 05/01/2016
3 dead as car drives off wharf in Australia

Australia is in shock after the bodies of a father and his two young children were pulled from a car, driven off a wharf in a suspected murder-suicide.

The tragedy happened at Port Lincoln, South Australia, yesterday morning.

Police are still trying to determine the circumstances surrounding the crash and their final moments.

Today, the family car that became a coffin in a matter of seconds was pulled from the depths of the ocean.

Inside were the bodies of Damien Little and his two young children.

"This is a heart-breaking incident," says Superintendent Paul Yeomans. "You've got some relatives that have lost relatives."

Two men fishing off Brennan's Wharf just before 6am yesterday watched, stunned, as the Ford station wagon drove off the end.

"We [saw] a car go past and heard a bang," witness Bodhi Pannenburg says. "The security guard came over and said it hit the lip and flipped over the lip and yeah, sank to the bottom."

The vehicle was travelling at high speed, which Mr Pannenburg estimates was around 80km/h.

The water is 30m deep, so police divers were flown in from Adelaide for the grim task of recovering the victims. Within a couple of hours they found a rifle with a telescopic lens in the car, which was carefully bagged for evidence.

Soon after, they emerged with the bodies of Mr Little and his children – four-year-old Koda and Hunter, who wasn't even one.

It's left a tightknit community, and an entire country, in shock.

Mr Little was a farmer from Port Kenny and was aged in his early 30s. He had a carpet- and furniture-cleaning business.

An avid footballer, he played for and coached the South Lincoln club.

"It's a small community," says Supt Yeomans. "It'll be a situation where somebody will know somebody will know somebody. No doubt this will affect a lot of people living in Port Lincoln for sure."

Police are still trying to determine the circumstances leading up to the tragedy.

Watch the video for the full Channel 7 report.