Hannah Clarke, Rowan Baxter, and their children Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey.
Hannah Clarke, Rowan Baxter, and their children Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey.
WARNING: Distressing content
Neighbours of murdered Queensland mum Hannah Clarke have relived the horrifying moment the woman and her three children were set ablaze by her estranged Kiwi ex-husband and their desperate attempts to hose down her burning body.
The harrowing evidence comes two years after Clarke and her childrenAaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4, and Trey, 3, were murdered at the hands of her estranged New Zealand-born ex-husband Rowan Baxter in a domestic violence killing that scarred Australia.
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.
Clarke, 31, and her three children were killed on February 19, 2020, after Baxter ambushed them outside the Clarkes' family home in Camp Hill, dousing the car in petrol before it exploded.
Zemek said the former Kiwi sports star appeared "controlled" and was not aggressive or violent but he had a "resigned look" on his face.
A coroner is examining the horrific death of Hannah Clarke and her three children, who were slain by her ex-husband Rowan Baxter in a horrific arson attack in Camp Hill in 2020.
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," 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."
Zemek recounted 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 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 that she attempted to approach the car when she learnt 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.
Neighbour Reece Gourlay told the court that he heard a loud bang and "distressed screaming" close to his house before seeing the car "engulfed in flames and smoke".
Gourlay said he saw an "agitated" Baxter pacing the car.
The court was told it appeared Baxter was trying to stop people from extinguishing the burning wreck.
Gourlay said he saw Baxter jump into the passenger side of the car and emerge with a knife.
"He (Baxter) took a few steps onto the nature strip, then crouched and started holding the knife to his abdomen," he said.
Another neighbour, Sarah Tranberg, said the explosion that morning shook her house.
"That's how loud it was, I thought a tree had fallen," she said.
"I heard her say, 'My kids, someone get my kids ... I can't believe he's done this'."
Tranberg told the court that she initially thought nothing of it until she saw the flaming car up the road.
Residents weren't able to do anything because the car's explosions were so big there was an "insanely hot radius" around the car, 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 been 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 Clarke outside her parents' house.
The inquest will examine any contact Clarke and Baxter made with domestic violence services prior to the horrific murder.
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