Clarke, 31, and her children Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4, and Trey, 3, were murdered after Baxter ambushed the family on their way to school in a quadruple murder-suicide in Camp Hill, Queensland on February 19, 2020.
The killer doused the family car in petrol and set it alight with Clarke and the three children trapped inside.
Clarke was pulled out of the burning car by bystanders and told them that Baxter had poured petrol on her.
Baxter, 31, from Tauranga, then stopped bystanders from putting out the fire before he killed himself. All three children died on the scene while Clarke was rushed to hospital with burns to 97 per cent of her body.
Seen in a photo posted on Facebook are Hannah Clarke and her three children who were murdered by her estranged husband, New Zealander Rowan Baxter.
Hannah Clarke’s final act before dying
Clarke’s father Lloyd has since recalled his daughter’s last moments before she succumbed to her horrific injuries.
Writing a harrowing account of his daughter’s final act for The Australian, he has called for the rest of Australia to follow the lead of NSW, Queensland and Tasmania in enacting laws designed to tackle coercive control, something Baxter had over Clarke for a long time before her death.
In The Australian, Lloyd detailed how his daughter called him as she was dying and how it’ll haunt him forever.
“In what were to be the final moments of her life, my daughter Hannah phoned me. It’s a call that will haunt me until the day I see her again.
“When I answered, there was no one on the other end, and I assumed that it was a pocket dial or one of her kids playing with her phone.
“A couple of hours later, the police came to tell me that my grandchildren, Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey, had been awfully murdered by the person who was supposed to love and protect them.
Lloyd and Sue Clarke want coercive control laws introduced in Australia. Photo / News Corp
“Hannah had survived his cowardly attack, but would succumb to her injuries later that day. Her last act of resistance was to reach out for her dad. But she couldn’t talk to me.”
Lloyd continued, saying that his daughter’s final phone call was a “metaphor for what happens to victims of coercive control”.
“Coercive control is about taking away the person’s voice, and ultimately their identity,’ Clarke wrote in The Australian.
“That’s how control is truly exerted. Like water torture, it’s a steady drip, drip, drip of tricks and manipulation that leaves the victim entirely at the mercy of their tormentor.
“And, as we discovered almost four years ago, the psychological torment frequently ends in physical harm.”
Rowan Baxter plays during the NRL pre-season rugby league match between the New Zealand Warriors and the Parramatta Eels in 2005. Photo / Photosport
Clarke had a domestic violence order out on Baxter as well as child custody orders following his multiple incidents of abuse.
He had a child custody order as recently as a month before the murders.
Lloyd went on to say Baxter would dictate what Clarke could wear, who she saw, her social media accounts, and went as far as tapping her phone and tracking her car.
He explained Baxter would also threaten to self-harm if Clarke didn’t give in to his demands.
The disgraced former league player also asked friends to spy on her and isolated her from her family.
In one incident he abducted 4-year-old Laianah and fled to another state.
“None of these actions in isolation could reasonably be considered a sign of impending murder,” he wrote, “but when they are viewed as a concerted pattern of behaviour, the warning is very clear.”
Rowan Baxter was served an application for a domestic violence and police protection order as his behaviour towards his ex-wife became worse.
Final act of ‘cowardice’ by Rowan Baxter revealed
During an inquest in 2022, Deputy State Coroner Jane Bentley became emotional as she delivered her long-awaited findings into the deaths of the young family, detailing how their lives were snuffed out in her ex’s “final act of cowardice” following the arson attack.
Throughout the inquest, the court was told Baxter constantly displayed controlling and abusive behaviours towards Clarke.
Some of these included controlling what Clarke wore and who she could see, demanding sex every night and berating her body image.
Bentley said she found it unlikely any further actions from police, service providers and family could have stopped Baxter from carrying out his “murderous” plans.
She described the estranged ex-husband as a “master of manipulation”.
“After Hannah left him and he realised he could no longer control her, he began to rally support from friends he had not seen for years and professionals he considered could advance his cause.”
Bentley said Baxter killed himself in a “final act of cowardice”, unable to live with the public denunciation and punishment he would receive.
• White Ribbon: Aiming to eliminate men’s violence towards women
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