Family tragedy deepens as newborn girl dies in hospital a day after her mother found her twin sister dead in her bed
- The six-week-old twin died at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital on Thursday
- Her sister was found unresponsive after being covered in bedding at their home
- Neighbours were woken up by panicked parents after the paramedics arrived
A six-week-old girl has sadly died in hospital a day after her twin sister was found dead in their mother’s bed in a tragic accident that has torn the family apart.
The distraught mother woke to find the sisters unresponsive at their home in Sunnybank Hills, Brisbane, in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Paramedics rushed to the address, but one of the sisters was pronounced dead at the scene. The other died in hospital on Thursday night.
The newborns were sleeping in the same bed as their mother and are believed to have been covered by bedding and had stopped breathing.
A young boy lays a bouquet of flowers in front of the Sunnybank Hills home where a dead baby was found. Her twin sister was rushed to hospital, but sadly died the following day
The Sunnybank Hills home (pictured) where police were attending a crime scene after a dead baby was discovered
The incident is not being treated as suspicious.
The crime scene which was set up at the home was taken down before midday on Wednesday.
Neighbours said they were woken at 4.30am by the sound of the twins’ father ‘howling’ and immediately feared someone had died.
‘I thought someone was dead and it really scared me… he was so upset,’ one neighbour said.
Another neighbour told The Australian she thought the mother had been hurt.
Neighbours leave a tribute outside the Sunnybank Hills home where one twin sister was found in a critical condition and another was found dead
‘I was very scared afterwards, I thought something must have happened to the wife,’ she said.
‘This morning, it must have been the parents (of the couple), came and were crying in the yard,’ the neighbour said.
The twins have two other siblings, including a four-year-old girl and a boy who was described as a ‘toddler’ by neighbours.
Neighbours said the young family had lived in the home for about two years and kept to themselves, but were always ‘doting on’ their children.
Locals in the quiet suburb left flowers and stuffed teddy bears outside the home late on Wednesday and told Daily Mail Australia the family largely kept to themselves.
Queensland police set up a crime scene on Wednesday morning after discovering the state of the babies but was taken down just before noon that day
The backyard of the Sunnybank Hills home where paramedics were called on Wednesday after a newborn girl died
‘We didn’t see them very often at all, if you did you give them a wave as you do with most neighbours, but that was very rare,’ Tony Pitman said.
‘It’s very sad, we’re all in shock, just totally shaken.
‘It kind of makes you feel bad that you don’t know your neighbours better, I think a lot of people in the street would say the same.’
Paramedics rushed tot he Sunnybank Hills (pictured), in the city’s south, at about 5.40am on Wednesday
Queensland Police released a statement on Wednesday afternoon confirming the death is not being treated as suspicious.
‘Preliminary investigations suggest the babies were sleeping together throughout the night and were discovered unresponsive this morning,’ the spokesman said.
‘A post mortem will be conducted to determine the cause of the baby’s death.’