A mother has been charged with murder after two young sisters were pulled from a car in 31C heat.
Kerri-Ann Conley, 27, is in custody after her daughters, aged one and two, and were found in the car outside their home in Logan, south of Brisbane at 1.30pm on Saturday.
Paramedics could not revive them and they were declared dead at the scene.
One neighbor told the Courier Mail that her grandson recalled seeing the children in the car at 6.30am, seven hours before they were found.
Police spoke to Conley for hours before she was charged with two counts of murder late on Saturday night.
She is due to appear at Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday.
Queensland Police Detective Inspector Mark White said the children died from extreme heat exposure.
‘Paramedics made attempts to revive those children, unfortunately they were both declared deceased at the scene,’ he told reporters in a press conference.
‘The two children showed evidence of being exposed to extreme heat.’
‘It’s tragic and we are putting a lot of emphasis on supporting our staff, because they do a very difficult job,’ he said.
A neighbor told the courier Mail that her granddaughters saw the girls’ bodies being carried out of the house after being splashed with water to cool them down.
‘My granddaughters saw the babies being carried out of the house soaking wet,’ she said.
‘It is a tragic accident, she was a good mum.’
Another neighbor, Willow Dawes, told the publication that she was confronted by horrific scenes.
‘I came out when the ambulance pulled up and saw the children being brought out,’ she said.
‘It’s pretty upsetting and it was quite confronting.’
Conley had reportedly moved into the home about six months ago.
It is the same property that police searched when investigating the murder of Been Leigh schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer, 12, in 2015.
Officers were searching for links between Tiahleigh and the then-occupants but did not find any before her foster father pleaded guilty in 2018.
Temperatures reached highs of 31C in Logan on Saturday.
Emergency services rescue more than 2,000 unattended children in cars each year.
The temperature inside a parked car can be more than 30 degrees hotter than outside the car, according to the NRMA.
Up to 75 per cent of the temperature increase occurs within five minutes of the car being closed.
‘A child left in a parked car under those conditions for even a few minutes can very quickly become distressed, dehydrated and can die from organ failure,’ the NRMA website states.
Tributes for the young girls poured in online after their tragic deaths.
‘Fly high little babies. So sad,’ one person wrote.
‘So very sad poor little bubbies my heart breaks,’ another wrote.
‘Sad to hear… RIP little angels… thoughts with the service members that found the kids,’ someone else commented.
‘R.I.P two beautiful angels,’ another wrote.
‘These poor little darlings rest now with your angel wings,’ another comment read.
‘Absolutely heartbreaking for these babies,’ someone else wrote.