It was a calculated plan by a "highly manipulative" man to try and reassert control over his family, but could "warning signs" have saved Hannah Clarke and her three children from one of the country's most shocking domestic violence murders?
It is a question a coroner will try to answer.
A two-week inquest is set to start this morning, but in a preliminary hearing last year lawyers shed some light on the escalating behaviour of Rowan Baxter in the years, weeks and months leading up to the murders.
WARNING: This story contains content that readers may find distressing.
Two years ago the 31-year-old mother, her daughters, Aaliyah, 6 and Laianah, 4 and her son, three-year-old Trey, were killed in a shocking arson attack by her estranged husband in Brisbane's Camp Hill.
The 42-year-old then killed himself.
But murdering his entire family was not a snap decision, Baxter had spent days preparing, and it was far from his first sign of violence against them.
'Highly manipulative'
It was not physical at first.
The pair met in 2009, and were married by 2012, and over the years Ms Clarke had confided in some loved ones that Baxter had been controlling, but always stressed he had never been violent toward her.
Lawyers said he used a "highly manipulative combination of threat, intimidation, guilt, shame and raw anger" to influence her everyday life.
This behaviour, through the campaigning of her parents and other domestic violence victim advocates since her death, is now known more commonly as coercive control.
The pair separated in early December 2019 and Ms Clarke moved into her parents' home with her children, but things quickly deteriorated.
By Boxing Day, Ms Clarke had to involve police and lawyers when Baxter forcibly took one of their daughters interstate and refused to bring her home.
Just over a month later police were called again when he assaulted Ms Clarke during an argument they had while she was picking up the children.
At this point Ms Clarke was identified as being at "high risk" of experiencing domestic violence, by police, who were also aware that Baxter may have been tracking her movements.
In this time, Baxter had sought professional advice about family and domestic violence laws and asked friends how particular court systems worked.
Methodical preparations for an unthinkable act
Two days before he killed his family, Baxter made a trip to a hardware store.
He bought cable ties and a plastic jerry can, before he made an odd request of a family member.
After offering a confusing story about needing to travel to the Gold Coast, he asked his aunt to borrow her car.
The next day, he took the new jerry can to a service station and filled it with petrol.
On the morning of February 19, he packed his aunt's car with the full jerry can and a knife and purchased fuel for the car before driving to a local cafe.
He bought a coffee and sat inside and drank it for an hour – something a barista noticed, and thought was strange.
He left and drove toward the Clarkes' home and stalked Ms Clarke's car before forcing his way into the passenger side.
Ms Clarke screamed for him to get out, her voice sounding so "desperate and fearful" a worried neighbour heard her and recorded it.
He then ordered Ms Clarke to drive, before pouring petrol over her, and onto the back seats where his children were strapped in.
After driving for around 200 meters Ms Clarke saw a man washing his car and pulled into his driveway before she begged him to call the police.
Baxter immediately restrained her, trying to stop her from escaping as the man tried to free her.
But the car exploded.
The blast was so loud, it rattled windows on houses across the street and some neighbours thought what they heard was a gas explosion.
Still on fire, Ms Clarke managed to free herself from the car and began rolling on the ground.
The man who had just helped her was now also injured himself, but used his hose to put out the flames.
A woman who had been driving by stopped her car and rushed to help, she applied cool water on Ms Clarke for the next 30 minutes while she frantically asked about her children.
Despite desperate attempts by another neighbour to try and use a fire extinguisher on the car, her young daughters and son could not be saved.
In agonising pain, from both her burns and the realisation her children were still inside the burning car, Ms Clarke's final words before being sedated were that she no longer wanted to live.
Ms Clarke died later that afternoon, succumbing to her injuries.
Baxter was also severely burned but that is not what killed him.
Once the car exploded, he fled but refused all help from bystanders.
He then returned to the car, took the knife he had brought, then stabbed himself in the heart – an act which guaranteed he would never be held responsible for "incomprehensible" and "unimaginable cruelty".
What could have been done differently?
There may never be criminal justice for Ms Clarke and her children, but it is hoped the coronial inquiry into their deaths will help uncover whether there was anything that could have stopped the "indescribable horror" Baxter inflicted.
The hearing is set to "look backwards" and reflect on what could have been done "differently or better" to address the escalating risk he posed.
Several witnesses are expected to give evidence, including police officers who investigated Ms Clarke's complaints about Baxter, as well as domestic violence services who were approached by the pair, to determine whether appropriate actions were taken to identify the threat Ms Clarke and her children faced.
