KEY POINTS:
In the New South Wales town of Cowra, police are winding down their forensic examination of the scene of the brutal murders of a 52-year-old woman and her two grandchildren.
The alleged killer, the children's grandfather, is due to appear in court again on Monday following reports that he is being treated for dementia, and as more details emerge of his bizarre behaviour after the murders on Monday afternoon.
His daughter, a 31-year-old police officer, remains in hospital following surgery for a fractured skull.
Her father is alleged to have hit her with an axe when she arrived at his house to collect her children, a 7-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl.
The 69-year-old man has been charged with three counts of murder and one of attempted murder and has been remanded in custody.
Their identities have been suppressed by the court.
The killings sparked a manhunt on Monday after the mother of the two children staggered to a neighbour's house, bleeding from the head.
The Daily Telegraph reported yesterday that the alleged killer had been playing video games when his daughter arrived at the house to find her children dead.
The girl had reportedly been drowned, and the boy killed by a blow to the back of the head.
Their grandmother died from multiple axe wounds to her head and body, the Telegraph said.
"When [the daughter] got back, her dad was sitting playing games on the computer, so she asked where her mum was," Christina Boswell, the sister of the dead woman, told the newspaper.
"He said she was in the bedroom. The sight she found was just horrible. He was still playing the computer."
The man was arrested in the NSW country town of Hay, southwest of Cowra, after his car had been recognised by a motel owner. The man had booked in, ordered bacon and eggs, then returned to reception to ask for milk as the motel owner's family locked themselves in a back room.
Police surged into his room when he opened the door to accept the milk.
News sites and television yesterday said police sources had confirmed that the man was suffering from dementia, but could not confirm other reports that he also had a brain tumour.
The Australian also reported that the man had changed after his only son, a 24-year-old soldier, committed suicide after being charged with drink-driving in 2002.
The son had been drinking with friends at the Puckapunyal Army base in central Victoria and had decided to drive to the nearby town of Seymour to continue drinking.
Worried friends called the police, who stopped his car and charged him with driving with a blood-alcohol level 2 1/2 times the legal limit.
The Australian said the charge would have had obvious ramifications for his military career, and that 10 hours after leaving the police station his body was found in his car.
He had gassed himself.
A neighbour of the accused killer said although the man had at first appeared to be coping, he started to neglect his house and stopped shaving.
"He became a bit reclusive," he said. Meanwhile, the former husband of the man's daughter spoke of his children as he prepared to formally identify their bodies.
He said their grandfather had been an "everyday" bloke who had seemed fine and normal, and that he had had no qualms about him and the grandmother looking after the children.
"I never expected anything like this to happen," he told the Australian.
He said his young son had been quiet, musical and loving, while his daughter had been "a really bubbly little kid".
"They were fantastic little kids. They were so full of love and so close to each other," he said.
