Murdered mum Hannah Clarke woke up on Wednesday morning with no idea of the evil that was lurking in her parents’ garden.
At 6.45am she bought her usual double shot latte from Blackbird Espresso in Camp Hill, Brisbane, and picked up another coffee for her father Lloyd.
Just after 7am she returned home to get her children Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4, and Trey, 3, ready for school and daycare – a tall order for a single mum.
Hannah, 31, had left her husband of 11 years Rowan Baxter, a 42-year-old failed NRL player, in November and endured escalating stalking and violence including an assault and a four-day abduction of Laianah.
Hannah Clarke (pictured with her three children, Aliyah, 6, Laianah, 4, and Trey, 3) died of her injuries on Wednesday
Hannah Clarke (pictured with daughters Aaliyah and Laianah) had just broken free from her abusive husband in December last year
She was in fear of her life and made a will in case he killed her and she needed to make sure the children would be cared for. No one imagined he would kill them too.
But 80 minutes after Hannah sipped her coffee, all four were burned to death after Baxter set her car ablaze using a jerry can of petrol.
Mr Clarke had left for work but described to Daily Mail Australia the last hours of his grandchildren’s lives based on her mother Suzanne’s account, and Hannah’s heroic police statement despite burns to 97 cent of her body.
‘Wednesday was a normal, whirlwind morning – she was getting the kids ready for school, screaming at them to hurry up,’ he said.
‘It was a mad rush, it always is because Hannah was never organised, she’d always leave it to the last minute and was rushing straight out the door.
‘She would never have thought of looking for the predator.’
Hannah Clarke and her three children were torched in their car on Wednesday morning by Rowan Baxter (all pictured together)
But a predator – Baxter – was indeed waiting as Hannah bundled her children into her Kia Sportage parked on the road in front of the Clarke home.
‘Rowan must have been lurking somewhere close, either hidden around the side of the house or in the neighbour’s driveway,’ Mr Clarke told Daily Mail Australia.
‘His car was found down the street, this was definitely premeditated.’
Hannah got the children into the car and walked to the back seat to buckle Trey’s seatbelt as the girls could do their own. That was all the time her killer needed.
‘He was very quick, being an ex-athlete so as she’s doing that he’s run into the passenger seat and held a knife to her throat and told her to drive,’ Mr Clarke said.
‘She got down to the corner here, turned left, and saw a neighbour washing his car and drove towards him to get help.
‘Michael Zemek was the heroic first responder to the horror that was about to engulf Raven Street and traumatise dozens of residents.
As Hannah stopped alongside him and yelled ‘he’s poured petrol on me’, Baxter realised his time was up, and lit the fire while he was still inside the car.
‘When he gets trapped in a corner, he has no empathy so he would have just gone ‘ok, that’s it, light it, boom, gone’,’ Mr Clarke said.
‘In a way I hope he poured it (the petrol) on the girls because that would have been quicker.’ As the car was engulfed in flames, Hannah jumped out while her activewear was on fire and the flaming petrol melting her skin.
Mr Zemek helped her smother the flames by dropping to the ground and rolling, then sprayed water on her horrific burns with his garden hose.
Lloyd Clarke (pictured, left) and Suzanne (right) are seen meeting baby Trey for the first time, along with his big sister Aaliyah. Trey was to die at three years old along with his sisters and mum
Hannah Clarke (pictured with her three children, aliyah, 6, Laianah, 4, and Trey, 3) is seen enjoying a day with her own grandmother (far left)
He suffered burns to his face and hands in the process and is still recovering in hospital.
Astonishingly, even with burns to every part of her body except the sole of one foot, Hannah was able to explain exactly what happened to police who soon arrived.
‘She still had enough strength and was still conscious enough to give a detailed description to the first responders saying what had happened,’ Mr Clarke said.
The shattered father said he wrestled with how much he wanted to know about his daughter’s last moments and there was more detail the police hadn’t yet shared.
‘I do want to find out and I don’t want to find out,’ he said.
‘I don’t know what his agenda was, was he driving somewhere to do it somewhere else, was he just going to do Hannah?’
Witnesses told Daily Mail Australia that even while Hannah was on fire her thoughts were with her children.
‘My children are in the car, save my children,’ she called out.
But it was too late.
The heat was so intense that the kids had no hope, and tradies who tried to open the doors burned their hands.
Aaliyah (left), 6, Laianah (right), 4, and Trey (centre), 3, were murdered by their own father
Left: Hannah Clarke pictured with her ‘main man’, son Trey in a beach snap. Right: Mrs Baxter on her wedding with her husband
‘She loved her kids, there was nothing she wouldn’t have done for them. Even at the end she fought to save them,’ Mrs Clarke said.
The shattered parents managed to break out of their seething anger and unimaginable grief to laugh and smile as they recalled their fondest moments with their daughter, nicknamed ‘Chookie’, and grandchildren.
Their last family outing was to Gold Coast theme park Sea World on Saturday where the three generations were joined by Hannah’s brother Nathaniel and his sons, aged 2 and 3.
‘It was the best day of their lives. They just had so much fun,’ Mrs Clarke said.
‘Aaliyah especially loved Sea World and we were going to take her back on Good Friday for her birthday.
‘Hannah saved up to get a season pass, which was really hard just on her income. She wanted to give them that because they loved it so much.’
Hannah Clarke (pictured with daughters Aaliyah and Laianah) has been described as a loving mother that would make time to help people with their problems despite having many of her own
‘It was very hot but I look back on it and I don’t care, we had a wonderful time,’ Mr Clarke recalled.
Mrs Clarke said Baxter was so controlling that he tried his best to split Hannah from her family, ruining her relationship with her brother and almost her parents.
‘We’d go down to the coast and if they turned up and saw us there, they would go to another beach,’ she said.
Mr Clarke added: ‘Rowan didn’t like that he couldn’t control Hannah with us and her brother because we saw right through him. He had to win at all costs.’
However, Rowan relented when palming off his kids was convenient and on the occasions when Hannah dragged them away to see their grandparents.
‘We were very close to her children, when he allowed it. If he wanted them minded we could see them,’ Mrs Clarke said.
‘He used people and when they were no good to him he burned them.’
Mrs Clarke said her daugher was ‘the bright light of our lives’ who reached out to others to try to help and comfort them ‘even though she had a world of problems of her own’.
The family’s car (pictured) is removed from the scene in Camp Hill, Brisbane, after Hannah Clarke and her three children were set alight inside
Mourners pay their respects at a makeshift shrine near the scene. Mothers were seen kneeling by the flowers with children (pictured)
The couple recalled how Hannah as a child had ‘the best toys’ including a huge barbie doll, was scared of birds, and always got herself wet.
‘A big king parrot landed on her shoulder when she was about four. It made her so scared of birds,’ Mr Clarke said.
‘We used to do a lot of bushwalks and beach trips as a family, because I’m a country lad I liked to get the kids involved in nature on weekends.
‘I’d tell them to stay away from the water, but she’d always fall in and get wet. So we decided we always needed to take spare clothes.’
Mr Clarke, like thousands of Australians shocked by the senseless tragedy, is outraged Baxter was not in jail after breaching a domestic violence order three weeks earlier.
A shrine grows at the scene where Hannah and her three kids were doused in fuel and set alight, while one person leaves a poignant sign about domestic violence (pictured)
The shocking murder-suicide that has left Australia reeling unfolded just metres from the home of Ms Clarke’s parents on Raven Street, Camp Hill, as she drove her children to school
He appeared in court on January 29 but was set free being another court date in April.
‘The police have been great, they did as much as they could,’ he said.
‘It’s laws that need to be changed, if someone has a serious DVO on them, they should have an ankle monitor. If they come within the vicinity [the victim] should be notified.’
The DVO was initially laid after Baxter kidnapped Laianah on Boxing Day and took her interstate to Pottsville in NSW.
‘She was there for four days until the police got her back,’ Mrs Clarke said.
‘He stayed with a mate who was an absolute animal and sent Hannah a disgusting email blaming her for everything.’
Hannah explained in a series of messages to a friend how Baxter managed to grab her child and run away for days on end.
Suzanne Clarke (pictured) with Aaliyah, 6 and Laianah, 4 said her grandchildren were ‘her world’
‘He took her off me in the street because I said the kids couldn’t stay with him until we had a court order,’ she said.
‘He got the s**ts and picked her up and threw her in his car.’
Hannah’s friend Manja Whaley further explained that the abduction happened in a park where the estranged couple met so Baxter could see the kids.
‘She told me he picked Laianah up and started walking away, she asked him what he was doing and told him that your car was the other way, all whilst Aaliyah was distressed crying for her father to put Laianah down,’ she wrote on social media.
‘Without any regard of the emotional damage to the children for taking Laianah away from her mother and her siblings, he proceeded to walk to the car and told her ‘I told you, this is your fault’.’
Three weeks ago – the last time the children stayed with Baxter at the former family home 3km away – the two got into an argument as he dropped them off.
Baxter assaulted her in the Clarke’s front yard by grabbing her by the wrist and twisting her arm behind her back, hurting her shoulder.
The couple said he was charged with assault.
‘He was supposed to drop the kids off at 9 o’clock but everything has to be on his terms so he arrived at 9.15. He was incredibly petty,’ Mr Baxter said.
Lloyd Clarke (pictured, left) was an active and involved granddad, often taking the kids out on day trips. He is seen with Aaliyah, 6 and Laianah, 4
This was the DVO breach that landed Baxter in court after Hannah’s parents reported it to police. It didn’t save her.
This tragedy was powerfully expressed by Universal Church priest Cedric Carkeet as he erected a wooden cross at the spot where the three children burned to death.
Etched on it was ‘RIP 4 more angels’.
He added a framed picture with a verse from the Book of John, and hung a dreamcatcher on the cross.
‘We should have the right to walk this Earth without getting hassled,’ he the distraught old man said, his voice pained with emotion.
‘The government’s got to do something, they’ve got to stop letting these mongrels free.
‘The system’s not working, lock ’em up, throw the key away.’
For support for domestic violence contact 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732
For confidential support call the Lifeline 24-hour crisis support on: 13 11 14