Cradling his newborn daughter in his arms, Anthony Harvey looked every bit the proud father as he gazed at the baby girl.
Baby Charlotte’s arrival came just a few months after Harvey, 24, had asked his girlfriend Mara Quinn, 17 years his senior, to marry him.
Life was good for the Perth couple who met in 2013 while working at the Sino Steel mine site on Cape Preston, in northwest Western Australia.
Before their daughter Charlotte had turned one, Mrs Harvey, 41, was pregnant again, this time with twins. By late 2016 the family grew to five with the birth of babies, Beatrix and Alice.
But last Monday night the father allegedly stabbed and bludgeoned to death his wife and three daughters, now aged three and two-year-old twins, inside the family home in suburban Perth.
Cradling his newborn daughter in his arms, Anthony Harvey looked every bit the proud father as he gazed at the baby girl he would be accused of killing three years later
The massacre happened the day after the family celebrated Father’s Day in the backyard together, along with their in-laws who also had young children which the three girls loved seeing.
Police allege Harvey then murdered his mother-in-law Beverley Quinn, 73, when she arrived at the Bedford home the following morning.
Ms Harvey and her mother’s bodies were found in the kitchen of the cottage-style house, and the thee children were found in other rooms, police said.
But to neighbours looking in, and friends who knew them, there was no hint of trouble or unhappiness.
Within hours of allegedly killing his mother-in-law and leaving her body, along with the four others he is accused of murdering the night before, Mr Harvey went off to mow lawns like nothing had happened.
Snaps from their time in the mines showed the pair smiling in work gear on site alongside colleagues happy the ‘unlucky in love’ Mara had found her match
The Harvey’s owned a franchise of Jim’s Mowing, and on Tuesday he had two gardening jobs to do.
Neighbours on Coode Street recall hearing the Harveys’ playing happily in the backyard on Father’s Day – just like any other suburban Australian family.
Richard Fairbrother and Rebecca Della said Harvey was a ‘doting father’ who always had a smile on his face when they handed back a soccer ball kicked over the fence.
‘I went over to chat with them a few times, most recently last month, and they always seemed very close and were always together,’ Mr Fairbrother said.
Mara Harvey’s only sister Taryn Tottman and her husband Alan spoke of her heartbreak and disbelief, but said they saw no warnings
Ms Della also said she never saw any signs of tension or cracks in the couple’s relationship and never expected anything was wrong.
‘Even the week before – they seemed happy and cheerful, I never heard them have any fights,’ she said.
Mara Harvey’s only sister Taryn Tottman and her husband Alan spoke of her heartbreak and disbelief, but said they saw no warnings.
‘We can’t come to terms with what’s happened, we don’t know why it’s happened. There was no indication of trouble, problems,’ her husband Alan told Nine News.
Police allege Harvey used ‘knives and blunt instruments’ to bludgeon to death his five family members.
They said he then stayed in the house for up to six days before driving 1,400km north, where he handed himself in to police on Sunday.
Jim Penman, the managing director of Jim’s Mowing, said Harvey gave no hint of financial or emotional problems.
Looking back at records, Mr Penman said Harvey sent two quotes to clients at 6.21pm and 6.37pm on that Monday night, less than five hours before he allegedly killed his wife when she got home about 11pm from a nightfill shift at Coles, where she worked for at least eight months.
‘Those quotes are striking to us. Highly courteous and well-mannered but they were sent just before and then suddenly five hours later they’re dead,’ Mr Penman said.
He said Harvey had two jobs assigned to him for last Tuesday, the day he allegedly killed Beverley Quinn, and the clients never complained they weren’t done, so he assumes they were carried out.
‘Anthony was telling us repeatedly that everything was fine, he was going well, had plenty of work and enjoyed what he was doing,’ Mr Penman said.
Mr Penman did say several franchisees who knew Harvey commented that he had ‘extreme mood swings’ that could ‘go up and then very down’.
Pictured grandmother Beverly Quinn (middle) with Charlotte (left), 3, two-year-old twin girls Alice and Beatrix
Mara Harvey, who was found dead alongside her three daughters and the girls’ grandmother has been remembered as a ‘loving mum’
However, Harvey had once told neighbour Mr Fairbrother that he needed to work on a Saturday even when he was sick with the flu, to keep money flowing in, signalling possible financial problems.
In addition, Mrs Harvey was struggling to sell an investment unit she bought while working in the mine.
The Mayland unit had been on the market since January without success.
Outside the Harvey’s house, floral tributes, teddy bears and heartfelt cards continue to pile up.
Almost 400 people have donated more than $23,000 in just three days to help Mrs Tottman pay the immense funeral costs for her five family members.
Perth musicians, many of whom know Mr Tottman, a drummer in a cover band, also organised a fundraiser concert for October 5.
The couple lived together in the small brick house (pictured is a member of the public laying a flower outside), and had daughter Charlotte a year after Mr Harvey proposed in 2014
Forensic police and other officials remove a body from the scene of the crime in Perth earlier this week
Others simply shared memories of their time with the family, tragically cut short, including Charlotte’s pre-kindy teachers Shirley Oswald and Tanya Tulloch.
‘She was just a massive ray of sunshine and so bubbly that you knew when she arrived,’ Ms Oswald said.
She had a ‘beautiful relationship’ with her sisters who she always called her ‘little babies’.
‘They were such a beautiful, dedicated family – not just victims of a horrible tragedy.
Her teachers remember Charlotte waving goodbye to her 19 classmates as she walked out the door last Monday, holding her mother’s hand.
Just hours later both of them would be dead, leaving a ‘devastating hole’ in the lives of dozens, and shocking the entire country.
Police said Mr Harvey then murdered his mother-in-law Beverley Quinn, 73, when she arrived at the Bedford home the following morning