When news broke of an apparent family murder suicide in Davidson on Sydney’s northern beaches in October, neighbours and friends were shocked to the core.
Inside the unassuming suburban brick house lay Fernando Manrique, his wife Maria and their two autistic children Elisa and Martin, alongside their pet dog.
At the time, Police alleged that Fernando rigged the pipe system with lethal gas, which leaked into the house after Maria threatened to take their non-verbal children back to Colombia.
But now a friend of Manrique’s has come out claiming that Maria must have been complicit to the plot.
Jairo Campos told The Daily Telegraph: ‘She would have known what Fernando was doing, the deaths took weeks to plan.’
Witnesses have recalled that in the days leading up to the tragedy, Fernando was seen rigging up the system on the roof of his house.
Concerns were then raised when Maria and her children failed to turn up to St Lucy’s in Wahroonga, a school that cares for children with special needs.
When police visited their property for a welfare check, they were faced with the horrifying scene of the Manrique family unconscious in rooms across the house
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
