12:53 p.m
It was 5pm on Friday when David went to his ex-girlfriend’s home in Vaudignies, Belgium, to drop off their two children as part of joint custody.
The 41-year-old man doused his ex-wife Sara in petrol and burned her at his home.
Then the forty-something escaped in the car with his two children. Fifty yards away, he set fire to the vehicle containing himself, his 9-year-old daughter Emmy and his 7-year-old son Marty.
“My companion took care of our animals. He heard a big ‘boom’ and he saw the car that had just exploded. He saw the flames rushing up,” a neighbor said.
Rescue workers arrived at the scene and discovered three charred bodies in the burned-out car. They could only determine the death of the father and his two children.
As for her mother, emergency services broke down her front door and found her inside her house burning, but she was still alive. She died moments later.
David had planned his gesture on purpose. He had brought petrol with him. He had sent a farewell message to his mother-in-law (his ex-girlfriend’s mother) as well as friends, saying he was “at the end of the line”.