A Western Australian father has pleaded guilty to killing his wife, his mother-in-law and his three daughters in September last year.
Anthony Robert Harvey pleaded guilty to five counts of murder today at Stirling Gardens Magistrates Court in Perth.
The guilty plea comes after the 25-year-old handed himself into police on the morning of September 9, news.com.au reports.
Mr Harvey allegedly used knives and blunt instruments to murder his wife and children on September 3 before killing his mother-in-law the next day in the kitchen of the family home in Bedford, in Perth's inner east.
The bodies of his 41-year-old wife Mara Harvey, three-year-old daughter Charlotte, two-year-old twins Beatrix and Alice, and mother-in-law Beverley Quinn, 73, were found in a Bedford house on the same day he handed himself into police.
Ms Harvey was allegedly murdered by her husband soon after finishing a night shift at Coles.
Police allege Ms Harvey spent her final hours stocking shelves at her local supermarket before being killed when she got home about 11pm, according to Fairfax.
Police say Mr Harvey, who ran a Jim's Mowing franchise, stayed in the house for days before travelling about 1500km north to the remote town of Pannawonica where he handed himself in.
Jim's Group managing director Jim Penman said Harvey had been a respected and well-liked franchisee.
"(He) had given no hint of financial or emotional problems in the many contacts we had with him over the past few months," Mr Penman said on Tuesday.
"The only suggestion of trouble was his failure on several occasions to respond to phone calls."
During an earlier court appearance last year, Ms Quinn's grieving sister Wendy Frost broke down outside court crying "why would you kill babies?".
Her oldest sister Maureen Devereux said the family had not seen the tragedy coming before they got a phone call from Mara Harvey's sister Taryn.
"All I could say was why? We sit all day, morning to night talking about it," Ms Devereux said. "I am very angry and want to know why."
Beverley Quinn with her grandchildren (from left to right): Charlotte, Beatrix and Alice. Photo / Supplied
Mr Harvey pleaded guilty to the murders when he appeared in Stirling Gardens Magistrates Court on Wednesday via video link from prison.
He will face a sentencing hearing in the West Australian Supreme Court on June 21.
Ms Harvey's only sister, Taryn Tottman released a statement after the tragedy that said there were "no words to explain the emptiness and loss that we are feeling".
Brother-in-law Alan Tottman said what allegedly happened was "unfathomable".
"It's just a very raw time", he said. "We can't come to terms with what's happened, we don't know why it's happened. There was no indication of trouble, problems."
