It was the one of the worst imaginable scenes for police and firefighters to confront: a house in a suburban street well ablaze and the knowledge that the property was almost certain to be occupied.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It was just over a year ago, February 19, 2018, when ACT firefighters were called to the house fire in Peter Coppin Street, Bonner.
It was around 8.45am and smoke was pouring from several separate sections of the modest brick home. Firefighters quickly donned full breathing apparatus and went in, checking as best they could in every room.
They knew the house had been occupied but such was intensity of the heat and flames, with multiple sources of ignition and evidence of accelerant used to fuel it, they had precious little time available before they had to get out.
A person in the neighbourhood, Shiree Diamond, filmed the fire and provided the evidence to police.
It was not until later, when the fire was quelled and investigators could get inside, that three bodies were found inside the the house.
Two of the bodies were those of children.
The third was that of their Kenyan-born mother, Anne Muhoro, 45, who the Coroner later found had died of the effects of the fire.
The cause of death for eight-year-old Ezvin Muhoro and his five-year-old sister Furaha still has not been fully determined although the forensic pathologist who undertook the post-mortem said the evidence strongly suggested that both children were dead by the time the house fire had taken hold.
The police investigation immediately focussed on whether a person had murdered all three and then set fire to the house to hide the evidence.
However, the further the police investigation progressed during the months which followed, the more evidence was found to the contrary. The fire had been deliberately lit.
The property in Bonner, previously owned by affordable housing provider CHC Australia, has since been demolished and another built on the site. Now, more than a year on, interim findings have been released but a full coronial hearing is yet to be scheduled.
