A mother hundreds of miles away heard her 4-year-old daughter crying “stop Daddy” during a terrifying phone call — hours before the little girl, her brother and their father were found dead inside a Bali bungalow.
Australian expat Damien John Shaw, 56, is suspected by Indonesian police of killing his two young children before taking his own life at the family’s home in Kuta on Sept. 13.
The children were just 6 and 4 years old.
Police say Shaw’s wife was in Jakarta when she became concerned during a phone call with her husband.
In the background, she could hear her young daughter crying.
Then the call suddenly ended.
Unable to reach her husband again, the mother contacted people near the family’s bungalow and asked them to check on the children.
Neighbors and local community members eventually forced their way inside.
What they discovered was horrifying.
Police found Shaw dead inside the bungalow along with the bodies of his son and daughter.
Investigators are now treating the deaths as a double murder-suicide.
But investigators say surveillance footage has revealed an even more disturbing sequence of events leading up to the discovery.
According to police accounts reported in Bali, audio from inside the bungalow captured the boy screaming.
The little girl was then seen running outside in apparent terror.
Police say Shaw chased her down, caught her and brought her back inside.
Investigators said the child could be heard pleading with her father in the minutes before her death.
The girl’s mother had also reportedly heard her crying “stop Daddy” during the earlier phone call.
That chilling moment was what prompted her to ask neighbors to check on the home.
Police say preliminary findings indicate the children were killed before Shaw took his own life, although authorities have continued examining forensic evidence and surveillance footage as they reconstruct exactly what happened.
The family had been living in the Kuta area since 2022.
Shaw’s wife had traveled to Jakarta before the deaths and was not at the bungalow when the tragedy unfolded.
Authorities said she was left in such severe shock that initial attempts to interview her were limited.
“Kuta Police have spoken with the victim’s wife, but progress was limited as she remains in deep shock and grief,” police official I Gede Adi Saputra Jaya said.
More disturbing details have since emerged about Shaw’s life before the killings.
According to Australian reporting, his marriage had experienced difficulties, and his wife had previously sought a divorce before later withdrawing the application.
A friend also reportedly told authorities that Shaw had spoken about wanting to die shortly before the deaths.
Police have also been examining reports that Shaw had attempted suicide about a month earlier.
Those reports have intensified questions about whether warning signs were missed before the children were killed.
Friends and former neighbors have expressed shock, saying they never imagined the family would become the center of such a horrific case.
One longtime friend told Australian media that news of the killings was almost impossible to comprehend.
Indonesian authorities have continued reviewing CCTV footage, interviewing witnesses and examining the scene as they work to establish the final timeline.
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