For seven hours, two little girls were trapped in a car in broad daylight – but no one noticed.
The grim reality of Darcey and Chloe-Ann Conley’s final moments a week ago inside a scorching hot car epitomises the suburb they grew up in.
In Logan, south of Brisbane, people have their own struggles which consume them.
‘People around here have got their own sh**t going on and their own worries,’ a resident who lived just a few houses down from the girls said.
A young boy claims he spotted the little sisters, aged two and one, in the car on the front lawn of their Logan Reserve Road house around 6.30am on Saturday morning.
They were discovered dead at 1.30pm.
Chloe-Ann Conley (left), one, and her sister Darcey (right), two, were found dead inside a hot car outside their home on Saturday afternoon. They were in the vehicle for up to seven hours but no one noticed
The black car the little sisters died in is surrounded by police tape as flowers and toys are left at the fence as a tribute
No neighbours reported the kids crying or screaming for help.
A tradie in a high-vis shirt was seen walking past about 1pm, and didn’t even glance toward the car.
‘That’s Logan for you mate. Even if someone heard the screaming they probably wouldn’t report it, because screaming is pretty common around here,’ the neighbour said.
The suburb has one of the lowest socioeconomic standings in Queensland.
The unemployment rate is almost 50 per cent higher than the national average, and most houses are owned by the Department of Housing.
Graffiti sprayed on a neighbouring house in Logan, south of Brisbane, near where the two Conley sisters died
The area is filled with housing commission homes stacked with rubbish (pictured) and has a high unemployment rate
Front yards are overgrown with weeds and littered with rubbish, from old mattresses to overturned trolleys and rundown cars.
Many houses have boarded up windows, while security doors are a necessity.
Police have a constant presence in the area, while on the road skid marks left behind by hoon drivers are common.
‘I’m only new to the area, I moved up here from Sydney, but I already know to steer clear of certain houses,’ one local, who did not want to be named or pictured, said.
‘People keep to themselves a lot, because it’s a pretty rough area.
‘You do have to wonder what goes on in some houses’.
Kerri-Ann Conley (left) has been charged with murder after her two daughters were found dead inside a car at their home in Logan. She has been refused bail
Gardens are not cared for with rubbish strewn all over the place and lawns overgrown
Just a few suburbs away SBS filmed the second season of hit their TV series ‘Struggle Street’.
If it hadn’t been filmed in Inala, Logan was touted as an appropriate backup option.
The suburb will be the first to have residents on welfare tested for drugs under a Federal Government scheme.
Many fences in the area have been vandalised, but there’s one on Logan Reserve Rd that stands out from the rest.
Instead of graffiti, flowers and soft toys line the fence where just metres away Chloe-Ann Conley, her sister Darcey, two, died.
Police allege Conley left the children inside the family car for up to seven hours as the mercury outside soared to 31C.
A house in Logan with a smashed window and a mattress dumped in the yard
Dr Dilip Dhupelia, the president of the Australian Medical Association’s Queensland branch, children’s bodies heat more quickly than adults.
‘Children’s bodies heat up three-to-five times faster than adults do, and the younger the child, the more vulnerable they are, Dr Dhupelia said.
Winding down the windows or parking in the shade will do little.
‘Some people have this false sense of protection – ‘it’s only 10 minutes, I’ll leave the window open four or five centimetres’,’ Dr Dhupelia said.
‘It doesn’t stop the temperature rising.’
The only yard getting any attention in the suburb is at the house where Darcey and Chloe-Ann died, as mourners leave flowers and cards in tribute
The last person to see the two girls alive, their babysitter Gina McKenzie took what is now a precious video of the young baby smiling and cooing as she played with a toy rattle.
In the background Conley can be heard coaxing young Chloe-Ann to say ‘mumma’.
‘They were both so loved, happy little girls, it just breaks my heart…I thought of them like my grandkids,’ Ms McKenzie said.
‘That’s Chloe-Ann (in the video) always happy and smiling.’
Witnesses said that when the girls were finally found in the car they saw their lifeless bodies being splashed with water in a desperate effort to save them.
A shrine set up outside the Conley house grows bigger by the day with teddy bears, flowers and cards with messages to the little girls.
Conley faced Brisbane Magistrates Court charged with murder under the state’s new laws that include ‘reckless indifference to human life’.
She is also charged with possessing dangerous drugs (cannabis) and drug utensils.
Conley was refused bail and is expected to remain behind bars for the funerals of her two daughters.
Conley (pictured with Darcey) faced Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday charged with murder. She was refused bail
‘RIP Darcey and Chloe: a bunch of flowers with a note is left at the scene of the girls’ death