
Just hours before Raina Thaiday violently killed her seven children and niece she was ranting in the streets, gripped by an acute schizophrenic breakdown.
“You hurt my kids, I hurt them first,” she yelled.
“You stab my kids, I stab them first. If you kill them, I’ll kill them.”
In the community she was known as a loving mother, but she reached a breaking point nobody saw coming.
Ongoing mental health issues had never been treated, and the financial and emotional pressure of being a single mum had become insurmountable.
What set her off that night was that two of her daughters had stayed out past curfew.
How could something like this happen? Before Raina Mersane Ina Thaiday ended the lives of the four boys and four girls there were noticeable behavioural changes.
Her religious views became more extreme, and she went from church to church seeking counsel.
A long-time cannabis user, Thaiday also decided to ban alcohol and drugs from the house.
Then the signs intensified in the final days.
She made proclamations about “Papa God” while out on the street, and the family’s possessions were tossed in a heap on the front lawn, as Thaiday began a process of cleansing the house.
Still, nobody could have foreseen what was to come next.
The children were found by their older brother, Lewis.
There were no survivors, and Thaiday was on the front verandah with about 35 self-inflicted stab wounds, including to the chest and neck.
More than two years has passed since the killings in their family home in Manoora, a suburb in the far north Queensland city of Cairns.
The house at 34 Murray Street has been demolished, replaced with a park to remember Malili, Angelina, Shantae, Rayden, Azariah, Daniel, Rodney and Patrenella.
The oldest child was 14, the youngest just 27 months.
The last time Raina Thaiday was seen in public, she was being wheeled into an ambulance as police swarmed Murray Street, a road lined with palm trees and Queenslander-style homes with tin roofs.
Her next appearance was quite a contrast.
On April 6 the case was heard in a Mental Health Court, in Brisbane’s sleek new court complex.