A woman has been arrested after her grandsons were found dead at a regional property following the grandmother’s phone call to officials asking for help.
Emergency services attended a home in Coonabarabran, in central-west NSW, at 2pm on Monday following reports of a concern for welfare.
Police found the 66-year-old grandmother at the home with the two dead children, aged six and seven.
The woman was later taken to hospital for further assessment where she remains under police guard.
A crime scene was established at the home, on the outskirts of Coonabarabran, on Monday evening.
‘Enquiries are ongoing,’ a NSW Police spokeswoman said.
‘There is no ongoing threat to the community. Police are not looking for anyone else.’
No charges have been laid.
Police sources told the Sydney Morning Herald the grandmother contacted the Department of Communities and Justice and allegedly told staff the boys were dead.
Government staff sent local police to do an urgent welfare check, it is understood.
Police and paramedics burst onto the property and made the grim discovery.
State Crime Command have now sent detectives from Sydney’s homicide squad to assist local police, with NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb calling the deaths a ‘terrible, terrible tragedy’.
Coonabarabran is a small town of less than 3,500 people, including the surrounding area.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said the state would ‘share in the community of Coonabarabran’s grief at the loss of two young boys who had their entire futures ahead of them’.
Meanwhile, a Brisbane woman in her 60s was charged with manslaughter over the death of a baby last year.
Police rushed to a property at Darra in Brisbane’s south-west on April 3, 2024, following reports an infant was unconscious and not breathing.
The 11-month-old baby boy was declared dead at the scene.
Police established Operation Whiskey Nocturne to investigate his death and on Monday detectives charged a 63-year-old Darra woman with manslaughter.
She is due to appear before Richland Magistrates Court on June 4.
More to come