Just hours after allegedly murdering his mother-in-law, Anthony Harvey went off to work and mowed two people’s lawns.
Jim Penman, the managing director of Jim’s Mowing, said the 24-year-old Harvey was assigned two gardening jobs to complete on Sept. 11.
The father-of-three allegedly murdered his 41-year-old wife, Mara, 3-year-old daughter Charlotte, and 2-year-old twins Alice and Beatrix on Sept. 10 before killing his wife’s mother, Beverley Quinn, 73, on Sept. 11 when she turned up at the house.
According to Penman’s records, Harvey had sent two quotes to clients at 6:21 p.m. and 6:37 p.m. on the 11th “as if everything was normal.”
“Those quotes are striking to us. Highly courteous and well-mannered but they were sent just before and then suddenly five hours later they’re dead,” Penman told Mail Online.
“He was telling us repeatedly that everything was fine, he was going well, had plenty of work and enjoyed what he was doing.”
Harvey had a 4.6 rating out of five, Penman said. “There must have been something going on we didn’t know about.”
Mara’s sister has also revealed the harrowing way she found out her family was dead.
Speaking to Nine News, Taryn Tottman said she turned on the television and recognized her sister’s house on the news.
“You never recover from something like this,” Tottman told Nine News. “Part of me didn’t think it was real.”
Brother-in-law Alan Tottman said that there was never any indication Mara was in danger.
“It’s just a very raw time, it’s just unfathomable,” he said. “We can’t come to terms with what’s happened, we don’t know why it’s happened.
“There was no indication of trouble, problems.”
Anthony allegedly used a blunt instrument and knives to kill his five family members. Police say he stayed in the house for days before traveling about 900 miles north, and then turned himself in on Sunday.
Anthony, who ran a Jim’s Mowing franchise, gave no hint of financial or emotional problems over the past few months, said Jim’s Group managing director Penman earlier this week.
Taryn said the last time she saw her mother and sister was at a funeral on Aug. 27 and they both seemed fine. “We were sisters. We had times when we laughed. We just laughed,” she told Nine News.
The couple said their two youngest children did not understand what had happened to their family members but their son understood some of it.
“There’s only a certain amount he understands, so his innocence makes it easier,” Taryn said.
“He didn’t want to go to Grandma’s anymore, he didn’t like it because she’s not there.”
Alan added: “Grandma is gone, Aunty Mara is gone. It’s very hard to look at their little faces and explain that.”
Taryn and Alan also thanked the community for their support. “Complete strangers have been amazing, overwhelming. My mom would have been humbled,” Taryn said.
“Everybody has been so supportive and so encouraging … it’s nice to know people care.”
Alan said the family would never recover from their loss.
“This will be forever. Time will heal certain pain but this will just go on forever,” he said.
A GoFundMe page has so far raised more than $25,000 for the family’s funerals. It is the third family mass murder in Western Australia in the past four months, representing 15 of 23 domestic violence-related deaths in the state this year.
Harvey is due to face court for the second time next week.
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