Hopes of finding a three-month-old boy alive have faded as South Australian police investigate the death of his mother and sister as a murder-suicide.
The bodies of Helena Wright, 36, and her 23-month-old daughter were found in the ocean off the coast west of Port Macdonnell on Monday.
The discovery came after emergency services were called to the area after a vehicle was found abandoned with its engine running at 11.15am.
Wright, originally from Estonia, had been living in Compton, a small locality outside Mount Gambier about 26km north of Port Macdonnell.
The mother and child were found below the cliffs and retrieved with help from local fishers.
Police have spoken to the woman’s husband, the father of the children, and said “based on the evidence currently available, the matter is being investigated as a murder-suicide”.
Land and sea searches around Cape Northumberland, near Port Macdonnell on the Limestone Coast, have been conducted since the three-month-old vanished with his mother and sister on Monday.
“Comprehensive physical search efforts have focused on a sizeable area of water and land, unfortunately the infant has not been found,” police said on Wednesday.
They said hope of finding the infant alive was lost, although the search effort was still continuing.
“The reality is, after three days, the chances of finding the baby alive are zero,” Supt Trent Cox said on Wednesday.
“Sadly, it’s a retrieval effort. We will continue to search this afternoon and then make decisions about whether we continue or discontinue based on the expert advice.”
Cox said extremely challenging conditions had hampered the search, forcing emergency vessels to stay out of the water for much of Tuesday and limiting efforts to shoreline and clifftop sweeps.
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“We’ve been unable to … launch water assets. We’ve been able to get the SES aerial drone up,” he said, adding that experts had advised against deploying an underwater drone in the dangerous conditions.
The SA premier, Peter Malinauskas, said the tragedy had shocked the community.
“If it involves children, that breaks your heart,” he said on Tuesday.
The incident has been referred to the coroner to examine the cause and circumstances surrounding the deaths.
Police said “there is no information to suggest that any person other than the mother and her two children were involved in this heartbreaking incident”.
