Father and young daughter found dead in Parramatta River as police comb Concord foreshore
By The Times of Australia
A Saturday trip on the Parramatta River has ended in the worst possible way, with a man and a young girl found dead in the water off Concord while detectives work through whether this was a terrible accident or something darker.
NSW Police say emergency crews were called to Bayview Park, on Burwood Road, just before 11.45am on Saturday after reports a man’s body had been found in the water. The man had not been formally identified by Sunday evening, but police said information before them indicated he was aged in his 40s.
Officers from Burwood Police Area Command were told the man had been seen shortly beforehand in a small boat with a child. When police moved through the vessel and the water around Hen and Chicken Bay, the girl was missing.
A command post went up on the foreshore. Specialist police divers were brought in. By about 5.30pm, the search had turned from desperate to grim: the body of a girl, believed to be six or seven, was recovered from the river.
Police said both the man and the child were yet to be formally identified. Officers are supporting the girl’s mother while inquiries continue.
The river was busy, as it often is on a clear weekend. That is now central to the investigation. Police want to hear from anyone who was near Bayview Park, Hen and Chicken Bay or the surrounding Parramatta River waterways on Saturday morning, particularly anyone who saw the small boat or captured footage from a home, dashcam or vessel-mounted camera.
Detectives have not publicly settled on a cause or motive. The early facts leave investigators with a narrow, punishing window to reconstruct: the boat on the water, the man seen with the child, the man’s body found before midday, and the child’s body recovered hours later.
It is the sort of case that lands hard because it starts in an ordinary place. Bayview Park is a family foreshore: picnic tables, a playground, a jetty, boats moving through calm water. By Saturday afternoon, part of it was behind a police line, and a mother was being told her family would not be coming home.
Anyone with information should contact Burwood Police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Information can be provided confidentially.
If this story raises issues for you, Lifeline is available on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call Triple Zero.
Sources: NSW Police statements issued June 13, ABC News and AAP reporting.
