A mother who stabbed her two sons to death in their beds made grim Google searches about killing, body parts, suicide, divorce and 'mommy murderers'.
asserted
who → stab → killing
The details of the searches by the woman, who cannot be identified, show her increasingly morbid thoughts in the weeks prior to killing her boys, aged 9 and 11.
asserted
who → identify → boys
Her dark and disturbing web history was revealed in the statement of facts as she faced NSW Supreme Court over the children's deaths.
asserted
she → reveal → deaths
Justice Richard Cavanagh ruled on Thursday that the woman was not criminally responsible because her mental health condition left her unable to reason.
asserted
condition → rule → her
The court documents reveal her deadly spiral began in August 2024 when she learnt her children's father was expecting another child with his new partner.
asserted
father → reveal → partner
On August 9, exactly a month before she ended her sons' lives, the deeply anxious and depressed 42-year-old began searching about 'bodies'.
asserted
old → end → bodies
The following day she searched 'suicide parents and kids' and the day after that, a news article entitled '10-year-old with throat slashed identified'.
This referred to Sophie Wang, the Gold Coast schoolgirl allegedly murdered by her 46-year-old mother at their Carrara home.
uncertain
This → follow → home
On the evening of August 15, 2024, she searched a 'Perth murder-suicide' and the 'Hart family murders'.
asserted
she → search → suicide
The woman searched for the murder of Gold Coast schoolgirl Sophie Wang (above, a forensic officer at the scene) allegedly by the 10-year-old's mother, in the weeks leading up to her killing her sons
The latter occurred in 2018 when a married couple drove their SUV off a California cliff, killing themselves and their six adopted children.
uncertain
couple → search → themselves
During the period of her searches, the NSW mother was still in touch with her former husband as they co-parented their sons, texting him about a rugby league game the father was attending with his kids.
But by the end of August, her Google searches had taken a more ominous turn and included 'deadly knife injuries', 'jugular veins' and 'the danger of knife slashing'.
asserted
searches → co → slashing
She had also bought a Wolstead knife set from a homewares store as a Father's Day gift from her sons to their dad, who accepted the present on September 1, but left the knives at the home where the boys lived with their mother.
asserted
boys → buy → mother
By the morning of the next day, the woman's searches had turned to the 'warning signs' of suicide.
asserted
searches → turn → suicide
She attended an appointment with a psychologist the same day, who noted the woman's feelings included 'I hit rock bottom' and 'the world is not fair'.
asserted
world → attend → bottom
She made numerous searches on September 4, about 'knife wounds', 'what does it feel like to get stabbed', 'how do mums kill their children', as well as questions about the brachial and radial arteries of the arm.
asserted
mums → make → arm
Three days later, she attended a family function with her sons.
asserted
she → attend → sons
Her search history on that day included 'Can you buy cyanide'.
asserted
you → include → cyanide
A woman leaves a tribute near the home where Gold Coast schoolgirl Sophie Wang, 10, was allegedly killed by her mother in 2024, just before the NSW woman killed her two sons
That night she took herself to a hospital seeking help for anxiety and was given temazepam tablets to help her sleep.
uncertain
her → leave → tablets
Her ex-partner noticed she was 'very anxious' the next day and stayed over at the house with his sons after they had dinner.
asserted
they → notice → dinner
On September 9, the woman's Google searches began at 7am and were specifically about death or suicide by knife injuries, including 'how long will it take me to die by cutting my neck?'
asserted
it → begin → neck
After dropping her children at school, she searched if it was possible to overdose on the drug Restivit, a doxylamine antihistamine used to treat insomnia.
asserted
it → drop → insomnia
Around 3.50pm, after picking his sons up from school, their father bought them shoes and met up with her, then bought a packet of 20 Restivit at her request.
asserted
father → pick → request
The woman Googled 'when does the coroner get involved' and 'does suicide go to the coroner' before buying four mini-bottles of Prosecco shortly afterwards.
asserted
suicide → google → Prosecco
The boys took part in athletics training until 6.30pm, after which they went out to dinner with their parents and the father noticed his ex-wife was 'pretty anxious'.
asserted
wife → take → parents
She took the kids home just before 8pm, and they dressed in pyjamas and went to their respective bedrooms.
asserted
they → take → bedrooms
Investigators revealed that the two boys, aged 9 and 11, went to bed in their pyjamas and at some point during the night their mother took their lives and then tried to end her own
Spiralling downward with depression, the woman made Google searches about other parents who had killed their children, including US cases and the Queensland tragedy of 10-year-old Sophie Wang's death (above, outside the crime scene)
Between 8.20pm and 10.45pm, the woman's internet history showed she searched 'Most Infamous Alleged Mommy Murderers in History', 'Bleeding to Death: Am I at Risk and How Can I Stop It' and 'How To Respond When Your Child Says "I hate you".'
asserted
I → reveal → you
She texted her ex, saying: 'Night mate xx, love you.'
asserted
She → texte → you
The last search on her phone, at 10.45pm, was about Melbourne mother Katie Perinovic, who killed her three young children and then herself in 2021.
asserted
who → kill → 2021
Later that evening, the woman took the Wolstead knives and killed her younger son and his older brother, with both bodies found together in the older boy's room.
asserted
bodies → take → room
Audio from a CCTV recording of a nearby residence would reveal 'a noise consistent with a young person screaming'.
asserted
person → reveal → noise
The drug doxylamine was found in both boys' blood.
asserted
doxylamine → find → blood
Between 6.47am and 9.03am on September 10, the woman made further Google searches about the arteries in the arm, leg and wrist.
asserted
woman → make → arm
She took one of the knives and self-harmed before or during her taking a bath, according to detectives.
uncertain
her → take → detectives
When the boys failed to call their father on the way to school as normal that morning, and he could not reach their mother, he became concerned.
uncertain
he → fail → mother
His sons' school told him the children were absent, and at 12.33pm, he arrived at the woman's house and found her semi-conscious in the bathtub.
asserted
her → tell → bathtub
Justice Richard Cavanagh ruled on Thursday that the woman was not criminally responsible for her children's deaths because her mental health condition made her unable to reason
She told him, 'I killed them' and he found the bodies of his boys on the floor of the older boy's bedroom, lying close to one another.
asserted
he → rule → one
The mother had left several notes, written in the expectation that she would not have survived, addressed to her ex and her parents.
asserted
she → leave → ex
In the letters she said that she felt 'like a boiling frog' and 'I am ready for some peace', adding: 'I can't leave my boys alone in such a bad world without my support.'
She wrote about her happiness being a parent of 'two such amazing boys', signing off to their dad: 'We will always love you.
'
asserted
We → say → you
I hope you can forgive me as I forgive you and find peace to live in the next chapter of your life.'
asserted
I → hope → life
The woman was taken to hospital under police guard with self-inflicted injuries before she was charged with two counts of domestic violence murder.
asserted
she → take → murder
She pleaded not guilty.
asserted
She → plead → ?
…and 8 more, not listed.
The Aporia
