Four Dead as Murder-suicide suspected at Australian "hippy commune" *

Jun 27, 2008, 7:03 GMT

Sydney - Police said Friday they had found alive the mother of three
children, victims in a suspected murder-suicide, who were found dead in
a car with their father at what neighbours described as an 'old hippy
commune' in a remote part of Australia's south-east.

'Paramedics from Eden have arrived on scene and can confirm that four
deceased bodies have been found (in Pericoe),' an ambulance spokeswoman
said Friday in the New South Wales town of Bega.

Pericoe resident Rick O'Hara, who raised the alarm, told Australia's AAP
news agency that the four had been living in what he described as 'an
old hippy commune' that had about 15 houses.

'It's wilderness,' he said. 'It's rocks and big trees and very little
dirt and very little water. There are three dirt tracks leading to it.'

Local radio reported that the three children - a 9-year-old boy, a
7-year-old girl and an 18-month-old boy - had lived in Pericoe with
their mother for about three years. The father was aged 44.