An Australian expat strangled his six-year-old son and four-year-old daughter in a Bali bungalow before hanging himself, and police say the children's mother, six hundred miles away in Jakarta, heard her little girl scream during a phone call moments before.
Damien John Shaw, 56, was found dead alongside the bodies of his two children on September 13 inside a rental bungalow in Kuta, the busy tourist district on Bali's southern coast. Residents discovered Shaw hanging from a rope. His children's bodies were stacked on top of each other nearby. Kuta police say Shaw strangled both kids before killing himself.
The case has drawn attention not only for the horror of the act but for the phone call that preceded it. Shaw's wife, whose name has not been released, was roughly 600 miles away in Jakarta at the time. She told police she heard her four-year-old daughter screaming "stop daddy" during a call, then frantically contacted a neighbor in Kuta to check on the family, the New York Post reported. By the time anyone reached the bungalow, all three were dead.
Bali police reviewed CCTV footage from the property. The footage showed Shaw's daughter running outside the bungalow, and Shaw dragging her back in. His six-year-old son could be heard screaming from inside, police told Bali Eyewitness News.
Those details paint a picture no parent should ever have to imagine. Two small children, alone with their father in a foreign country, with their mother hundreds of miles away and powerless to intervene.
Denpasar city police official I Gede Adi Saputra Jaya confirmed investigators had spoken with Shaw's wife but said the interview yielded little:
"Kuta Police have spoken with the victim's wife, but progress was limited as she remains in deep shock and grief."
Shaw's wife told police the couple's marriage had been troubled for years. About two weeks before September 13, she left the Kuta bungalow and moved to her parents' home. She was in Jakarta at the time of the killings, though the reason for that trip has not been disclosed.
More alarming: roughly one month before the murders, Shaw attempted suicide. His wife intervened and saved his life. Police noted the family did not seek psychiatric treatment afterward.
That fact stands out. A man attempted to end his own life, and within weeks he was left as the sole caretaker of two small children with no professional mental-health support in place. Whether anyone outside the marriage knew about the attempt, and whether any authority was contacted, remains unclear from the available police statements.
Sources close to the family described a man battered by grief long before his marriage fell apart. Shaw lost his father when he was fifteen. A brother also died, though no timeframe was given. His mother died recently of an illness.
None of that excuses what happened in Kuta. But it fills in a grim backdrop: a man with a history of loss, a recent suicide attempt, a collapsing marriage, and two defenseless children in his care, with no apparent safety net.
Back in Perth, Australia, where the Shaw family had previously lived, a former neighbor offered a quiet recollection to The Australian:
"He was very private but never caused any trouble, we always exchanged pleasantries."
Private. No trouble. Pleasant enough. The kind of description that shows how little neighbors sometimes see.
Several basic facts remain missing from the public record. Police have not released the children's names. No coroner's report or formal autopsy results have been made public; the stated causes of death, strangulation for the children, hanging for Shaw, rest on police statements alone at this stage. It is also unclear whether any formal criminal investigation was opened, given that the suspected perpetrator is dead.
The nature of the CCTV footage, whether it came from building security, a neighbor's camera, or another source, has not been specified. And the identity of the neighbor Shaw's wife called from Jakarta, and whether that person was the one who ultimately found the bodies, has not been disclosed.
What is known is damning enough. A man who tried to kill himself a month earlier was left alone with two children under seven. No one sought professional help. No one intervened a second time. And two kids who should be starting school are dead.
When institutions, families, or systems fail to act on clear warning signs, the people who pay the price are always the ones with the least power to protect themselves.
