Bedford murders: neighbours “dumbfounded” as police reveal ages of victims

POLICE have revealed the ages and genders of the victims in the Bedford homicide investigation, with all five spanning three generations.

The bodies of twin two-year-old girls, a three-and-a-half-year-old girl, their mother and their grandmother were all found in the Coode Street property yesterday.

Assistant Commissioner Paul Steel told reporters yesterday that a man in his 20s had turned himself in at a regional police station earlier in the day.

The information the man gave police there led them to the Bedford property, where they found the victims.

The man remains in police custody, however no charges have been laid over the deaths at this stage.

Forensic police are still on the scene today.

Richard Fairbrother lives next door and is one of the neighbours who have spoken of their shock at the tragedy.

“It is a terrible, terrible tragedy for the family,” he said.

“It is sad for the community, it is sad for a lot of people who knew the family but it just can’t be understated how terrible it is for the family.”

Mr Fairbrother said he understood the family may have been killed “sometime in the last week” but they had been overseas at the time.

“I have been to their house a couple of times, they have been to ours a couple of times…and yeah, you get to know them a little bit,” he said.

“More than anything, we knew them from sharing the backyard.

“The kids’ ball will fly into our yard all the time and we’d be throwing it back.

“I’ve spoken to our neighbours…at this stage, it is more shock than anything else because people are still trying to get the full story as to what actually has happened here.”

Alicia Bienkowski, who also lives nearby, said it was “completely shocking”.

“Everyone is pretty horrified,” she said.

Another neighbour, who asked not to be named, said she was “dumbfounded” by the tragedy.

The deaths come in the wake of the Osmington shooting in WA’s south west back in May, in which seven people were found dead.

In July, a mother and her two children were found dead at their Ellenbrook home.