Mother and daughters die brutally in West Australia

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The West Australian fishing village of Port Denison is today mourning the brutal deaths of a single mother and her two young daughters, killed in circumstances forensic investigators have described as amongst the worst they have seen.

How 46-year-old Heather Glendinning and children Jane, 12, and Jessica Cuzens, 10, died may take days to determine and police have not said yet if they believe the three were murdered, or were killed by murder and suicide.

Another daughter, 13-year-old Grace Cuzens, lives with her grandparents in Perth and yesterday posted Facebook tributes to her dead sisters, writing to Jane: "Goodbye my little sister your forever in my heart," and to Jessica: "My little angel your always with me".

The girls' father, livestock depot manager Harley Cuzens, yesterday flew from his base in the far north town of Broome, as police said they had interviewed two persons of interest.

The deaths have rocked Port Denison, with counselling offered to police and teachers and students at the local school - which postponed its prize-giving night for primary students - and patrol cars and scene-of-crime tape locking down the area around the Glendinning home.

"It's going to be a long, laborious process (to) to conduct the investigation," Police Inspector Mill Munnee told reporters yesterday.

"The forensic officers have told me that this is one of the worst crime scenes that they have encountered.

"They must go through the process to find out exactly what happened and concurrent to that, detectives are interviewing people like family and friends to find out exactly the last known movements of the (victims).

"We are here to establish the truth. We want to know what happened, why it happened, and who did it."

Port Denison, with a population of about 1200, has been rocked by the killings.

Sitting at the mouth of the Irwin River on the Indian Ocean coast about 360km north of Perth and an hour south of Geraldton, the town is a small blue-collar community that thrives on rock lobster, fishing, ocean sports and wildflower tourism.

Ms Glendinning and her children lived in the Bluewater Gardens Estate, nestled in a triangle whose base is formed by the local golf course and its apex by streets joining Point Leander Drive, which bisects Port Denison and links it to sister-town Dongara, across the Irwin to the north.

"It is a tight-knit community here," neighbour Jodie Taylor told news.com.au.

"We all help each other out and are kind to each other, so everyone's pretty shaken up."

Jane and Jessica Cuzens were popular in Damia Circle, taking care of younger kids at the local park and playing with other children including those of next-door-neighbour Dwayne Black.

"All I can say is the two girls were really nice kids. Jane, she was just one of those girls that loved the little ones. She was babysitting our kids all the time in the street," he said.

"The girls were beautiful. It's just a tragic loss."

The girls attended Dongara District High School, took part in local activities and, with the mother, went for dinner from time to time at the Dongara Motor Hotel.

Ms Glendinning, who was locked in a long-running legal battle with estranged partner Harley Cuzens, attended meetings of a local sole mother's group.

The West Australian said her legal problems, involving disputed claims for hundreds of thousands of dollars resulting from her exclusion from a Cuzens family enterprise, had reached the WA Supreme Court. Family Court matters were also under way.

But on Monday night Ms Glendinning's mother, worried that she had not heard from her daughter, called at the Damia Circle home on Monday evening and found the girls' bodies in the hallway.

Police later found their mother elsewhere in the house.

"It's a bit hard to grasp and comprehend," said Stuart Chandler, president of the surrounding Irwin Shire, told ABC radio.