Dad in "custody battle" kills 4-year-old daughter in murder-suicide (Australia)

The write up here is so bad. It's as if the Australian media has learned nothing about fathers and custody-related murder since ARTHUR FREEMAN and ROBERT FARQUHARSON.

First, this is not some inexplicable "tragedy" where a father killed the child he "so adored" for some equally mysterious reason. So stop all the woo-woo, ain't-it-a-mystical-paradox rubbish.

There were plenty of red flags here, but of course the media doesn't identify them as such, or at least not very clearly.

Let's look at the father, GREG HUTCHINGS, without the blinders and phony sentimentality.

1) Even his own family (and presumably his enabler mother in denial) admits that he was "depressed" and on (unidentified) "anti-anxiety drugs."

2) He was 35, unemployed, and living at his mother's house in a "musty" room he shared with his daughter during his access time. So the guy is so dysfunctional that he can't even clean?

And even as a true portrait of this guy is coming together, the idiotic reporter characterizes the custody battle as a "tug-of-love" between the parents.

NO IT'S NOT! We have a mentally ill, barely functioning deadbeat father who, nevertheless, denigrates the mother of his child by claiming that he "feared" her. Which is crap, because who was it who murdered this girl? It wasn't Mom! Classic projection, a common move out the playbook of narcissistic control freaks and abusers.

Also note this:

1) The only smears against the Mom that are listed here, are a penchant for "electronic music." Nothing but a nebulous "lifestyle" choice--that the father also shared! This kind of random, arbitrary attack against the mother is also a common tactic among narcissistic abusers.

2) Daddy had his panties in a bunch about Mom taking the child to Finland without his authorization, and this deadbeat whack job was able to keep the courts from letting her.

Here we see the power of the fathers rights movement in Australia. Because if Mom had been able to leave Australia, this child would still be alive, wouldn't she? This is also classic projection, because it was because DADDY WAS PROVIDED ACCESS that he was able to take off with this child and kill her. This is also one of the grand achievements of the fathers rights movement, that any criminal sperm donor is granted his "rights" with no questions asked and no regard for the safety of any other human being.

3) But wait. Daddy also "feared" the mother taking the daughter to Peru? Once again, it wasn't the mother who killed the girl! The actual outcome shows that the father's "fears" were nothing but manufactured bullsh** meant to muddy the waters. Unfortunately, he succeeded admirably.

4) It's lazy and inaccurate, therefore, to conclude that this "tragic double-death was the result of a desperate ­father who cracked."

In fact, once again we have a protective mother WHOSE REAL AND JUSTIFIABLE CONCERNS WERE IGNORED BY THE COURTS. We know they were real, because the real-life outcomes PROVED they were real, and not tit-for-tat he said/she said.

"In applications to the Federal Circuit Court last year, Dorendahl expressed fears Hutchings was "delaying ­return to disappear with child," and 'it will be hard to locate ­father as he is unemployed, has no assets, lives with his father and is behaving erratically.'"

And that turned out to be the crux of the matter, not some nonsense about a mysterious tragedy arising from a "tug-of-love."

This was a WHOLLY PREVENTABLE MURDER that was set up and enabled by Australia's family courts, which once again assumed that the mother was lying or exaggerating so they ignored her. And therefore once again, they provided a killer father with unfettered ACCESS to his murder victim.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/inside-the-life-of-a-child-killed-so-tragically-what-led-greg-hutchings-to-destroy-the-child-he-so-adored/story-fni0cx12-1226813453165

Inside the life of a child killed so tragically: What led Greg Hutchings to destroy the child he so adored?

Taylor Auerbach • The Daily Telegraph • January 30, 2014 12:00AM

A tragic end to the two and a half week search for a father and his little girl who vanished just over the New South Wales border as two bodies were uncovered in sand dunes near Pottsville. ...

•Eeva may have been killed through drowning or poisoning
•No 'weapons' were found at crime scene
•Post-mortem conducted today - but decomposition may make cause of death hard to determine

POLICE are investigating today whether drowning or poisoning could have been the cause of death of four-year-old Eeva.

No weapons have been found at Pottsville Beach, where the bodies of Eeva and her father Greg Hutchings were found on Tuesday, but determining the cause of death may be difficult as the bodies - which may have sat under a pandanus tree for two weeks - are badly-decomposed.

Investigators are yet to ­determine how Hutchings and his bubbly blonde daughter Eeva Anna-Leena Dorendahl-Hutchings died, but what is certain is that tumult and heartache dominated four-year-old Eeva's short life.

Police have confirmed they are investigating an apparent murder-suicide but the cause of death will be determined by the NSW Coroner.

Eeva's grief-stricken mother Michelle Dorendahl spent several hours with detectives yesterday but is yet to speak publicly.

At Pottsville Beach, a single bunch of flowers was placed at the beach sits on the beach. A handwritten note alongside reads: 'BIG, big cuddles you precious innocent angel xxx'.

Eeva had been at the centre of a custody battle and Mr Hutchings was due to hand her over to her mother at Pottsville when they disappeared on January 11.

Before Hutchings disappeared with Eeva on January 11 he said in signed affidavits that he feared his estranged wife Michelle Dorendahl. ==================================================
Sadness at the heart of tragedy:

A GLIMPSE into the room which 35-year-old Greg Hutchings shared with his four-year-old daughter Eeva in his mother's Pottsville home reveals a normal suburban scene.

However, past the colourful hanging children's jackets and card which Eeva made for her dad, sits a container of anti-anxiety drugs.

They are a grim hint of the darkness behind the discovery of the bodies of the father and daughter - just a short walk from the front door of 55-year-old Diana Hutchings' first-storey flat.

They are a clue to the effect the tug-of-love over the custody of the four-year-old had on Hutchings.

The packet of Escitalopram was on a table when Ms Hutchings opened her doors to The Daily Telegraph while the search for the missing father and daughter was still under way last week.

She smiled throughout the meeting and said repeatedly: "I'm sleep-deprived. I just want them found.

"The room shared by Eeva and her father was unremarkable, if not a little musky.

- colourful children's jackets hung on a rack, a tiny pink fishing hat sat on the toddler's pillow.

And a card she had made for her Dad sat opened next to the double bed.

His family admitted Hutchings suffered depression.

Courts banned either parent from taking Eeva to "electronic music 'lifestyle' festivals" or to countries not party to The Hague convention on child abduction.

Both parents were also ­ordered not to "denigrate" the other in front of their daughter Eeva. ==================================================

He expressed fears his ­­­ex-partner planned to take Eeva to Finland and a Finnish passport was issued in Eeva's name in 2011 - but courts had imposed restrictions on both parents.

Mr Hutchings mother Diana yesterday said she did not believe her son had killed his daughter.

"I don't believe it was a murder-suicide, no," she said yesterday.

"Nobody could ever imagine Greg doing anything to harm his child.''

"Two people have passed away and I think they deserve the truth. I know the community wants answers - we want answers.

"It's unfair to jump to conclusions until we know. We have two beautiful people here (Eeva and Mr Hutchings) and we have to find a way to say goodbye and to honour their lives.

"The best thing we can do is to show some respect."

Detectives yesterday visited the Pottsville unit Mr Hutchings, 35, shared with his mother Diana, to take DNA samples.

Meanwhile friends of Ms Dorendahl took to Facebook to voice their heartbreak.

"Your community family loves you, we honour your mother, so sorry we failed to protect you. Fly free beautiful girl," one friend posted.

Many who knew the family believe the tragic double-death was the result of a desperate ­father who cracked.

The owner of the White Jade restaurant, and Mr Hutchings' former boss, told The Daily Telegraph: "He never turned up because of the custody fight ... we had to let him go (after two months)."

On the day he went missing with Eeva, Dorendahl went to the White Jade. She called police from the restaurant.

The court orders only ­hinted at the bitter fight over Eeva's company.

In applications to the Federal Circuit Court last year, Dorendahl expressed fears Hutchings was "delaying ­return to disappear with child," and "it will be hard to locate ­father as he is unemployed, has no assets, lives with his father and is behaving erratically."

Her fears proved prophetic.

After Eeva returned from a trip to Peru with her mother last year, Hutchings said: "I had grave concerns about my child travelling to South America … I do not see any justifiable reason to put my four-year-old child at risk when there is a safe alternative of Eeva being at home."

Police yesterday said formal identification of the bodies would take "considerable time" and they are treating the deaths as suspicious.