Town of Lockhart 'shocked and bereft' after killing of family, inquest hears
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Version 0 of 1. The NSW farming town of Lockhart was “shocked and bereft” by the shotgun killings of an entire family, an inquest has heard. NSW state coroner Michael Barnes on Tuesday began four days of hearings into the deaths of canola farmer Geoff Hunt, his wife Kim, and their three children Fletcher, Mia and Phoebe, in September last year. Counsel assisting the coroner, Peggy Dwyer, told the inquest she anticipated the evidence would establish that Hunt shot his wife outside the family home before going inside and shooting the three children dead in their beds, and then driving to a dam on the property and taking his own life. “Each of these deaths left a terrible gap in the lives of family and friends,” Dwyer told the inquest. Related: Lockhart shootings: body and firearm pulled from dam after family killed “They are also confounded as to how this could happen to a loving and gifted family, who had tried so hard to support each other in the lead-up to this tragedy.” Dwyer said it appeared the Hunt family was not experiencing financial troubles at the time of the killings and the evidence would show no one predicted the tragedy. But the family was struggling to cope with the fall-out of a serious car crash in 2012 that left Kim Hunt with physical difficulties and a significant shift in personality. Before the accident she was described by relatives as a “warm and loving mother, a perfectionist with lots of energy”. But brain injuries she suffered in the crash left her prone to sudden rage and “explosive” outbursts. “On a number of occasions she said she wished she had died in the car accident,” Dwyer said. In 2013, police removed firearms from the Hunt family home due to concerns about Kim Hunt’s suicidal thinking. The inquest will hear evidence one of these firearms was later returned to the family and was used to fire the fatal shots. Only days before the bodies of Kim Hunt and the children were found on 9 September 2014, Geoff Hunt’s mother Lynette is said to have remarked to her husband John: “Geoffrey has no smiles today.” “No,” John replied. “He hasn’t smiled in a week.” It has also been revealed that a disability care worker who discovered Kim Hunt’s body in the driveway of the home found a note inside the house which read: “I’m sorry. It’s all my fault. Totally mine.” |