In Daddy’s Arms

In Daddy’s Arms

Paul McCann

There were 6 children under five years of age in the family home and there was no escape .The mother never stopped all day while the father was working double shifts to cover the costs of running the home . It was all hard work with no one who could help .Both sets of in-laws were unable to help . They were overseas and had some  health issues that restricted their movements .

When the father came home one night from the children were all screaming and their mother had left a note .

‘”I CAN’T DO THIS ANYMORE “

Next day her body was found at the bottom of a cliff face , she had taken her life . Suffering from depression, they said . 

The news soon went around the community about then tragedy and some generous people left some envelopes in the letterbox to help the father who had quit his job to raise the children as a  solo parent . The government provided a fortnightly family benefit payment which was enough to cover the rent . Luckily after the birth of their third child they both took out a life insurance policy just in case anything would ever happen to either or both of them .

 It was difficult to raise six children in a small home but as soon as the life insurance would be paid , he had plans to buy a larger house to bring up the children . 

The insurance company were instructed not to pay out the life cover until the autopsy was completed which had to be a lengthy process done because of the manner in how she died . 

One interesting fact they found was the presence of drugs in her system and due to the amount and strength of the drugs it was suspected she would have been unconscious before she died and as a result unable to throw herself off the cliff .

Now detectives were called in to begin a murder investigation . 

They were looking at her partner as the main suspect .  

On the day she allegedly jumped off the cliff, her husband had called in sick and some of his work colleagues had stated they knew there were some problems in his marriage . He often mentioned this  at work .

The detective in charge of the case went to inspect the site where the alleged suicide took place . 

As he stood on top of the cliff looking around he walked around for a while inspecting the area and noticed some marks on the ground , that indicated a body  was  dragged to the edge of the cliff . 

He also spotted some marks  left by car tyres .

Overhead a helicopter was hovering around then he realised there was a new housing estate being developed .

He had a thought that possibly there was an outside chance they may have been taking videos or photographs of the area on the day of the death that could provide some evidence for his murder investigation . Just before he left the scene he found a mobile phone that he hoped might have some information of interest for his investigation .

After the property developer of the new housing estate went through the video footage and photos that were taken from the helicopter . On the day of the alleged suicide they had all the evidence they needed . They had accidently captured the actual murder scene of the car pulling up near the cliff and the husband dragging his wife to the edge and then throwing her over  . The police immediately made an arrest and all the children were put into custody of the state .

The father of the six children was found guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment and the children were fostered out into care .

There was justice for the victim who was murdered however for her children it was another story . Those Daddy’s  arms that once held them were the same arms that murdered their Mother .

The End