Parents ‘kill autistic sons, pets after which themselves’ in horror quadruple murder-suicide
Police have been horrified at the scene of a tragic quadruple murder-suicide after a couple took their children and their pets’ lives and then their own
The horror was uncovered after a care worker found a note at the family home (Image: Facebook)
Police officers were left shocked after discovering a house filled with dead bodies after a couple killed their two autistic teenage sons’ and their family pets and then took their own lives.
Cops were called to the family home at 8:15am by a care worker who regularly helped the boys, who both had severe, non‑verbal autism, after the worker arrived at the house for a pre‑arranged visit and was unable to contact the family.
The bodies of Jarrod Clune, 50, his partner Maiwenna Goasdoue, 49, and their teenage sons Leon, 16, and Otis, 14, were all found inside their home in Perth, Australia, on Friday morning. It is understood the care worker found a note at the residence containing words to the effect of: “Don’t enter”. Alongside the note, the care worker found instructions to call emergency services.
After police officers entered the family home, they discovered all four members of the Clune family dead alongside the family’s two dogs and a cat. The dead bodies were located in different rooms of the house. Police revealed the deaths were not violent by nature, and no weapons had been used to kill the residents.
On Friday, Homicide detective Jessica Securo said: “Although this investigation is in its infancy, police are investigating this matter as a murder-suicide.”
Alongside this, police said both teenage boys experienced “significant health challenges,” while reports also suggested the family had lost government funding to support one of the boys’ disabilities.
On Saturday, investigators discovered a second note, thought to be a letter, which helped investigators conclude the tragedy was a double murder-suicide. Maiwenna Goasdoue – who went by Mai – was a part of multiple Facebook groups where she described her children as having “severe” autism.
A friend of Mai said the couple felt increasingly isolated and said: “They often felt isolated, unsupported and abandoned by family, friends, support services, schools, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), the health system and the community in general.
“No one can understand the endless fight to get the support and services they so desperately needed. Mai wouldn’t even put her boys into respite care in case they were mistreated in any way.
“I can imagine that [there was a] lack of support [and] chronic sleep deprivation [as] the boys did not sleep through the night and long school holidays of challenging behaviours made [Mai and Jarrod] feel they had no other option.”
Since the family’s deaths, friends of the Clune family and community members have paid tribute and voiced their frustration that Leon and Otis were not more supported by the NDIS.
The boy’s autism mentor, Maddie Page, wrote on Facebook: “The Clune boys will always hold a special place in my heart – they taught me to think outside the box when it came to working with autism and reminded me that communication is so much more than words.”
The Premier of Western Australia, Roger Cook, has said that despite his government focusing on the police investigation into the incident, there is also a need to understand the deeper problems at hand. Cook said: “At times like this you ask yourself why? What went wrong? Could [it] have been prevented?
“We must now step through the process of undertaking the investigation to get the facts in front of us in order to be able to answer those questions.”
