CSI Launceston

Almost this time last year it was CSI Launceston at the house across the street from us. On a Wednesday night at about 9.30 pm we got a knock on the door from a policeman. He said there had been an 'incident' across the road and asked if we had heard or seen anything. We had actually been out during the night - I think I had been over to Melbourne with Noah for the day to see a Dr and Aaron had come to pick me up at about 7pm, so we didn't notice anything going on.

After the policeman left we quickly ran into our bedroom and looked out of our window at the house that he mentioned and there were 3 police cars there already as well as a van. As the night went on more police cars, forensics and reporters arrived and people stood out in the street watching what was going on. We quickly realised that this 'incident' was no break and enter but something a lot more serious and we assumed that someone had been killed.

At first it was quite 'exciting' (if you can say that when someone has been killed) as it just seemed like a movie. It was incredible watching the forensics in their suits going in and out of the house all night but after a little while it sunk in that someone was most likely dead over the road and someone had gone into kill them. We had no idea if it was a random thing and I started to really panic about it - wondering why it happened over there, what had happened, why they didn't come here, did they think about coming here - really irrational thoughts.

All night I couldn't really sleep. I even went and opened all the boys bedroom doors (who knows what that was going to do!) and kept on checking on them all night. I started to say that I didn't want to be home anymore as more and more police arrived throughout the night (the house is LITERALLY right across from our bedroom window so we could see everything going on) and I told Aaron I wanted to go out to Mum and Dad's! Aaron just laughed and said that we were safe - especially if there were 8 police cars out the front!

All night I would doze on and off and then whenever I would wake up I would peer out of the blinds and see something different happening - a different police car had arrived and another one had gone, or the forensics were back in their van getting some new piece of equipment. In the meantime Aaron was laying in bed snoring as usual and I couldn't believe that he could sleep through what was going on!

At 6.30 am we switched on the TV and watched the Sunrise news and they said there had been a double murder in Launceston! I couldn't believe it!! There had been a double murder across the street and we had seen what was going on all night and now it was on the national news!! Supposedly it was the son who had killed his elderly parents. I often pull into their driveway to turn around and wonder who lived there as I only ever saw them a couple of times outside in the garden and it was always very quiet there.

At this stage Jalen was very scared about 'kidnappers and robbers' (he has a very vivid imagination) and we had been telling him for a long time that we were very safe where we lived, that we lived in a nice area of Launceston and that he didn't have anything to worry about! Yeah right!! I knew that in the morning by the time he woke up they would still be there and he would see what was going on when we left for school, so when he woke up I tried to play it all down and said to him that something had happened across the street and the police were there and everything was okay. I told him that whatever had happened was probably between people that knew each other (I was hoping so anyway!). He actually wasn't too worried when he saw the police cars which was good. He now calls it the 'murder house'.

At about 8am I saw the forensics go in one last time and carry out something long which was wrapped up in plastic. I assumed it was a baseball bat. It later turned out to be an axe. Half of Launceston had obviously also heard the news as I had never seen so many cars go up and down our street at 8am. Everyone was very curious. At about 8.15 am we saw a car pull in the driveway backwards and the bodies were carried out. It was really unbelievable - just didn't seem real. I felt terrible for the people who were killed, and especially the other family members who we even saw arrive at the house in the morning, before the bodies were taken away.

The next morning I took the boys to school and then went to the gym as usual and I was suprised that so many people at the gym knew where I lived! People were asking me if the double murder was near my house and I was telling them all the happenings of the night.

When I got back home from the gym a TV reporter from Southern Cross pulled out outside the house. She saw me starting to go into our house and came running over to me. She asked me if I had seen anything during the night and I told her that I knew nothing about what happened except what I had heard on the news, but that we saw a lot of the action during the night. She asked me if I would give a neighbours perspective on camera and I did! I think I told her how scary it was when we knew something terrible must have happened and how I didn't want to be at home anymore, but wanted to go out to Mum and Dad's! They also interviewed another neighbour two houses up.

When I saw the WIN TV crew pull up I ducked inside the house pretty fast! One interview was enough for the day - didn't want to hog the limelight!! :)

Yesterday on the front page of the paper they said that the son had pleaded guilty. The house is still the same as the day the police left it. The blinds are all shut as well as the gates. People come from time to time to mow the lawn and sometimes people go inside. I always feel so bad for the people going in there thinking how hard it must be for them. People are still asking me all the time what is happening with 'the house across the street'.