A close friend of killer Rowan Charles Baxter has revealed the chilling final conversation they had just days before he burned his wife and kids alive.
The controlling fitness fanatic murdered his wife Hannah Clarke and their three children, Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4, and Trey, 3, on Wednesday.
But just three days earlier, Baxter – who was estranged from his wife after years of domestic violence – had tearfully told a friend he ‘wouldn’t do anything stupid.’
The friend, who has not revealed his real name, had known Baxter for 10 years and went for a two-hour lunch with him in Brisbane on Sunday.
‘The last thing I said to him as he was walking away was, “Mate, don’t do anything stupid”,’ he told the Brisbane Times.
Hannah Clarke and her three children were torched in their car on Wednesday morning by Rowan Baxter (all pictured together) who stabbed himself to death at the scene in Camp Hill
The friend, who did not reveal their name, said he had worried Baxter might hurt himself, but didn’t imagine he could hurt his family (stock image)
‘And he sort of turned as he was walking away and he just said: “No mate, I’m not going to do anything stupid.”
The friend said he was concerned that Baxter might hurt himself, but didn’t think he was capable of hurting his family.
He had tearfully told the friend his children were ‘all I’ve got in life’.
But he tore away their future just three days later, when he set fire to the family car during the morning school run in Camp Hill, Brisbane.
Strapped into the back seat, the three youngsters didn’t stand a chance.
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
Hannah Clarke (pictured with daughters Aaliyah and Laianah) made a final emotional post on Instagram after breaking free from her abusive husband
On Thursday morning dozens of family and friends visited the scene of the tragedy to pay tribute to the family (pictured)
Their brave mother fought to save them, despite suffering burns to 97 per cent of her body, but later died in hospital.
Baxter had stalked his estranged wife for weeks, despite being under a domestic violence protection order (DVO).
The friend said that while he was not justifying Baxter’s actions, he thinks more attention should be paid to men’s mental health to prevent such atrocities.
‘We need to get to a point where we ask: what did drive this guy to this point where he reached a state in his mind where all rational thinking disappeared and he became the monster that he was on that day?’ he said.
Left: Hannah Clarke pictured with her ‘main man’, son Trey in a beach snap. Right: The couple on their wedding day
He confirmed Baxter was receiving counselling before the horrific murder-suicide.
It comes as Baxter’s cousin described him as a pathological misogynist who viewed women as only good for two things – cleaning and sex.
‘Rowan believed that women are two things – to be a house cleaner, and to be a prostitute,’ Sandra Taylor told Nine News.
‘For everybody else – they’re shocked. I’m not.’
He had made his wife suffer through years of sexual, emotional and financial abuse, before she finally broke free from his clutches and planned to start a new life.
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
Hannah Clarke (pictured with her three children, aliyah, 6, Laianah, 4, and Trey, 3) died of her injuries on Wednesday
But he soon made sure her dream could never be realised.
Hannah was taking the children to school just after 8am from her parents’ house in Camp Hill while her killer lay in wait.
A notorious control freak, Baxter had been spiralling since Hannah left him after years of abuse.
‘Rowan must have been lurking somewhere close, either hidden around the side of the house or in the neighbour’s driveway,’ her father Lloyd Clarke told Daily Mail Australia.
‘His car was found down the street, this was definitely premeditated.’
Hannah’s devastated mother Suzanne revealed she had even discussed writing a will, saying: ‘She said to me only last week, ‘Mum should I do a will?
‘What happens to my babies if he kills me? Because he’ll go to jail for murder, who gets my children? She said, ‘I want you and dad to have them or Nat. I don’t want his family to have them’.