Warning: post contains distressing content.
A dad who drowned his six-year-old daughter and wrapped her lifeless body around her two dead dogs was punishing his ex-wife for leaving him, an inquest has heard.
Darren Flux-Edmonds, 44, was looking after his daughter Keziah at her home on the Isle of Wight in the UK on June 1 of this year. Her mother, Nikki Flux-Edmonds, was at work for an hour when Mr. Flux-Edmonds took the lives of his daughter and their two dogs before hanging himself to punish his wife of 12 years.
The inquest heard Mr. Flux-Edmonds inundated his former wife with a series of text messages before killing his daughter, with one long message reading, “Congratulations” and ending with, “You have left me with nothing, I’ll leave you with only memories,” The Sun reports.
It is believed upon receiving the messages, Mrs. Flux-Edmonds immediately called police who arrived at the home to find the bodies of Keziah, her dogs and Mr. Flux-Edmonds at the property.
Concluding that Keziah was unlawfully killed, the BBC reports Mr. Flux-Edmonds drowned his six-year-old daughter in the the bath before arranging her body on the bed next her two dogs who were also believed to have drowned in the family home.
In a statement read to the hearing, Mrs. Flux-Edmonds said her ex-husband managed to take everything from her.
"I would never have left Keziah alone with Darren had I thought he would hurt her," she said.
"My world is over, I have nothing left."
Mr. Flux-Edmonds had been struggling with depression and has been seeing a therapist over his battle with his mental health.
Reading from a therapist's report dating back to May, Coroner Caroline Sumeray said Mr. Flux-Edmonds had admitted at the time he had nightmares about killing his daughter.
“Patient has had nightmares about murdering his wife and daughter. He said this is something he would never actually do. He loved them enormously and had never hurt someone in the past," she read.
Despite this, the corner found the death of Keziah and the events that unfolded as "totally unforeseeable".
