Lankan father and two children found dead in Australia

The Western Australia police have launched a probe after a Sri Lankan father and his two children were found dead inside a home in the Perth suburb of Huntingdale, foreign media reports said yesterday.

Investigators have confirmed that the 40-year-old Lankan father Indika Gunathilaka murdered his son Kohan, 6, and daughter Lily, 4 before taking his own life in a garage at the south-eastern suburban home, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Assistant Police Commissioner Allan Adams said the 40-year-old father was found dead in the garage of his home, with the two children inside, after their mother alerted a family member to her children being missing from a predetermined pickup location.

The family member discovered the traumatic scene at the Essington Street house, with first responders also being extremely shaken ahead of the mother arriving.

The children were reportedly found in their beds.

Assistant Police Commissioner said the circumstances would be thoroughly investigated “but we are treating this incident as a double murder-suicide”.

Gunathilaka, who was a town planner, had only six weeks ago posted a video to social media about his recent struggles with mental illness in an effort to help others feeling the same way, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

“It’s been a while since I posted anything on Facebook … I’ve had my personal reasons for it. To those who felt a difference and reached out, I thank them, a lot of those calls and messages have gone unanswered and I do apologise but the care and concern shown is appreciated,” he said.

“People who have known me well enough for long enough, I would feel quite certain they may not think of me as someone going through depression or being depressed … but I have recently been diagnosed with depression.

“I’m on medication which is helping, I would think, because the unpleasant signs of mental health issues or even depression is not only does it affect you, it affects the people around you.

“Suiciding is possibly not the solution … reach out to people, try and talk to people, seek help, see what you can do before you make that drastic decision where if you are successful there is no coming back.”

Gunathilaka was a founding member of the Royal College Old Boys Association of Western Australia, which brings together graduates from a prestigious Sri Lankan high school who are now living in Perth.