South Australia mother went to police station a day before she and her daughter were found dead; cops launch murder-suicide probe

A chilling case has emerged in South Australia, where a mother who died in a suspected murder-suicide visited a police station a day before the incident, according to South Australia Police. The bodies of 36-year-old Helena Wright and her 23-month-old daughter were found in the ocean west of Port MacDonnell on Monday (July 27, 2026).

Wright, 36, visited the Mount Gambier Police Station on Sunday, July 26, where she "spoke with police," authorities confirmed on Wednesday (July 29, 2026), according to The Guardian. On Wednesday, police said they had ended the official search for a missing three-month-old after “careful consideration”, saying the infant “could not have survived the period of time that has elapsed, either in the water or on land,” as quoted by The Guardian.

Emergency crews were dispatched to the area on Monday after an abandoned vehicle with its engine still running was discovered at about 11.15 a.m. Wright, who was originally from Estonia, lived in Compton, a small locality outside Mount Gambier, about 26 kilometers north of Port MacDonnell.


Authorities said Wright had visited a police station one day before her body was found. On the morning of the incident, at about 9.30 a.m., officers went to her home to conduct a welfare check after a concerned friend contacted police. No one was at the property when they arrived. Wright and her 23-month-old daughter were later located below the cliffs, with local fishers assisting in recovering their bodies.

Investigators have spoken with Wright's husband, the father of the children, and said "based on the evidence currently available, the matter is being investigated as a murder-suicide". Meanwhile, land and sea search operations were launched around Cape Northumberland near Port MacDonnell on the Limestone Coast in an effort to find the missing three-month-old infant.

"Comprehensive physical search efforts have focused on a sizable area of water and land, unfortunately the infant has not been found," police said on Wednesday, as quoted by The Guardian. Officers also acknowledged that hopes of finding the infant alive had faded. "The reality is, after three days, the chances of finding the baby alive are zero," Supt. Trent Cox said earlier on Wednesday.

Cox said rescue efforts had been complicated by extremely challenging conditions, preventing emergency vessels from entering the water for much of Tuesday and restricting search teams to the shoreline and clifftops. "We've been unable to … launch water assets. We've been able to get the SES aerial drone up," he said, adding that specialists had advised against using an underwater drone because of the hazardous conditions.

Police said they will continue to "coordinate shoreline monitoring and inspections across the coming days". South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said the tragedy had deeply shaken the community. "If it involves children, that breaks your heart," he said on Tuesday.

The matter has been referred to the coroner, who will examine the cause and circumstances surrounding the deaths. Police said "there is no information to suggest that any person other than the mother and her two children were involved in this heart-breaking incident".