true crime

Police have charged a 24-year-old man with the murder of five people in a Perth home.

With AAP.

A 24-year-old man has been charged with the murder of five people in Bedford, Western Australia.

According to Ten Daily, the man will appear via video link from Karratha Magistrates Court this afternoon.

As reported by news.com.au, neighbours have identified the deceased as mother Mara Quinn, 47, and her two-year-old twins Alice and Beatrix, and their three-year-old sister, Charlotte. Their grandmother Beverley Quinn, 74, was also killed.

They also confirmed to the publication that Quinn worked as a FIFO worker for a WA-based mining company.

It was also reported by WA Today, that Quinn lived at the Bedford property with her 29-year-old fiance, Anthony Harvey, who is 18 years her junior.

Police have yet to confirm how the alleged killer is connected to the family, but it’s believed he gave himself up to police on Sunday morning, before officers went to a home on Coode Street in Bedford where the bodies were found.

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Assistant Commissioner Metropolitan Region Paul Steel told reporters on Sunday that police arrived at the home about 12pm (local time) to find women and children among the dead.

“Police have located the bodies of a number of deceased people including women and children. Whilst the scene is yet to be forensically examined it is believed up to five deceased are located at that scene,” he said.

“It is a tragic thing when incidents like this occur. It does send a ripple through the community of Western Australia.”

However, at that time Assistant Commissioner Steel did not say how the victims were killed, or if any weapons were found, and could not confirm the ages, genders and relationship of the deceased.

The tragedy comes after a 19-year-old man was charged with murdering an eight-year-old boy, a 15-year-old girl, and their mother, at Ellenbrook in July.

At the time of the incident, Mr Steel said it was “potentially the most horrific crime scene he has ever been called to”.

In May, another family was torn apart as four children aged eight to 14 were killed near WA’s Margaret River.

Peter Miles, 61, is suspected of shooting dead his 58-year-old wife Cynda, their daughter Katrina, 35, and her children – daughter Taye, 13, and sons Rylan, 12, Arye, 10, and Kadyn, eight – at their farm in Osmington.

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