An inquest has heard how a 67-year-old father hunted down and shot his two teenage children as they cowered under a desk at home.
Sydney man, John Edwards killed his 13-year-old daughter, Jennifer and 15-year-old son, Jack after stalking them to their new West Pennant Hills home in Sydney’s north in 2018.
The inquest heard the teens had been found “crumpled together” and deceased under a desk in Jack’s bedroom, both having suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
Edwards then returned to his own home and turned his gun on himself some hours later – with police finding a ‘World’s greatest Daddy’ t-shirt alongside his body.
Police later discovered a USB stick containing a suicide note, in which he blamed the killings squarely on the actions of his ex-wife, Olga.
“Olga, you may scream out what has John done? When the reality is what has Olga done” the three-page suicide letter began.
“None of this had to happen had you been a halfway normal person”.
The children’s mother, Olga, tragically took her own life six months after the killings of her precious children.
An inquest into the deaths began last week in the NSW Coroners Court, where those gathered heard that Edwards had “a propensity for domestic violence” against his former wife and children.
Edwards was granted a shooting licence in 2017 after a police database search by Firearms Registry staff failed to detect several domestic violence matters on his police record.
He was then able to legally purchase five weapons, including the glock pistol he used to execute his children.
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