MARCH 2020
     

'We all went instantly cuddling each other'

Killer father left heart-wrenching messages
before blowing up caravan with kids inside

The scene of the horror blast

By Dennis Amor
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A FATHER who deliberately blew up a caravan with himself and two young children inside at Mount Isa did it as an act of "spousal revenge", a coroner has decided.

Mine worker Charlie Hinder, 39, together with his four-year-old son River and seven-year-old daughter Nyobi died in July, 2015, when the family caravan outside their home exploded into a million pieces, the blast being felt up to 50 metres way.

It was thought the former mine supervisor used between four to five kilograms of explosives to end his and his children's lives. His wife Katherine was inside their house but had been an intended victim as well.

At first it was thought  the explosion was caused by a gas leak.

"The Queensland Police Service investigation later concluded that Mr Hinder had intentionally killed Nyobi, River and himself," Northern Coroner Nerida Wilson said in her findings just released.

Mr Hinder's marriage to wife Katherine had hit troubled times and they had separated two months before the explosion. He was living in the caravan outside their home and had made previous threats to harm her and their children, the coroner said.

A protection order had been issued.

In the days leading up to the explosion, Mr Hinder had shared a message on Facebook saying: "Cherish every moment and every person in your life, because you never know when it will be the last time you see someone".

And just hours before the fatal blast he posted another message saying he loved his kids but could not allow "evil" to take them from him.

"Don't feel sorry for me or her, feel sorry for my beautiful kids," he wrote.

"To all my friends thank you and I'm sorry, I love you all. I guess this world was just not for us. I love all my family. Don't feel bad."

The message accused his wife of ruining his life and said he was suffering from alleged domestic violence.

He claimed he was a "puppet on her string".

"I love my kids more than anything in this world, they would have been great. We all went instantly cuddling each other. Goodbye everybody," his message added.

The coroner decided it was more probable than not that the explosives used by Mr Hinder were sourced by him during his employment at a Mt Isa mine from 2005 to 2008.

The coroner's findings said that before the explosion, Mr Hinder had been sitting on a mattress in the caravan holding an explosive charge in the immediate proximity to the children ... "perhaps holding or cuddling them at the time he detonated the charge".

It had been an act of spousal revenge/retaliatory filicide coinciding with the breakdown of Mr Hinder's marriage and during the period post-separation from his wife.

"He also intended to cause the death of his wife in the same explosion however was unsuccessful," the coroner added.

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