Kyla
03-22-2004, 04:05 PM
Family found shot dead
Stories from FRASER COAST CHRONICLE
A full line of brightly coloured baby’s nappies flapped lazily in the gentle breeze.
A young mum had washed her tot’s clothes and pegged them out to dry in the warm winter sun.
Any other day it might have seemed a pleasant laid-back country morning scene but yesterday the white sheet on the ground, the blood-spattered truck and the police officers scouring the property and guarding the gate told a different story.
The tiny suburb of Aldershot, west of Maryborough, was in shock.
Two adults and a baby girl had died in a heart-wrenching burst of violence that would scar the community forever.
The breakdown of a two-year relationship ended in the death of a teenage mother, her estranged boyfriend and their 10-month-old daughter.
Police believed that Maryborough timber worker Ashley Prange, 22, shot dead Belinda Jane Underwood, 19, and their daughter Layla Jane before turning the gun on himself.
Ms Underwood was found by her mother Helen Sparkes more than 12 hours after the shootings.
Her mother, alone in the Aldershot home, had heard gunshots about 5.20pm on Tuesday.
Other Aldershot residents had heard the shots but they said yesterday the sound was common.
Speaking from outside the crime scene, Ms Underwood’s half-sister Sue Sparkes said she received a frantic phone call from Mrs Sparkes about 8.20am yesterday.
“Get over here quick … Fred (Ashley’s nickname), Belinda and Layla are dead.”
Forensic experts were still at the scene late yesterday.
The bodies had not been moved from where they were found.
Many nearby residents heard the three or four gunshots on Tuesday night, but every one of them dismissed the cracks as a farmer shooting.
At first Lesley, a neighbour, thought the sirens signalled a break-out at the nearby prison.
When the helicopters started arriving she decided it might be a practice for the air show in Bundaberg this weekend. No one had noticed anything amiss.
Stories from FRASER COAST CHRONICLE
A full line of brightly coloured baby’s nappies flapped lazily in the gentle breeze.
A young mum had washed her tot’s clothes and pegged them out to dry in the warm winter sun.
Any other day it might have seemed a pleasant laid-back country morning scene but yesterday the white sheet on the ground, the blood-spattered truck and the police officers scouring the property and guarding the gate told a different story.
The tiny suburb of Aldershot, west of Maryborough, was in shock.
Two adults and a baby girl had died in a heart-wrenching burst of violence that would scar the community forever.
The breakdown of a two-year relationship ended in the death of a teenage mother, her estranged boyfriend and their 10-month-old daughter.
Police believed that Maryborough timber worker Ashley Prange, 22, shot dead Belinda Jane Underwood, 19, and their daughter Layla Jane before turning the gun on himself.
Ms Underwood was found by her mother Helen Sparkes more than 12 hours after the shootings.
Her mother, alone in the Aldershot home, had heard gunshots about 5.20pm on Tuesday.
Other Aldershot residents had heard the shots but they said yesterday the sound was common.
Speaking from outside the crime scene, Ms Underwood’s half-sister Sue Sparkes said she received a frantic phone call from Mrs Sparkes about 8.20am yesterday.
“Get over here quick … Fred (Ashley’s nickname), Belinda and Layla are dead.”
Forensic experts were still at the scene late yesterday.
The bodies had not been moved from where they were found.
Many nearby residents heard the three or four gunshots on Tuesday night, but every one of them dismissed the cracks as a farmer shooting.
At first Lesley, a neighbour, thought the sirens signalled a break-out at the nearby prison.
When the helicopters started arriving she decided it might be a practice for the air show in Bundaberg this weekend. No one had noticed anything amiss.