Father and daughter die in Parramatta River, murder-suicide

A father and his young daughter died in the Parramatta River on Saturday in what police are investigating as a premeditated murder-suicide. The bodies of the 47-year-old man and his six-year-old daughter were recovered from waters near Hen and Chicken Bay at Concord in Sydney's inner west.

Police were alerted just before 11:45 a.m. on Saturday by a passerby who reported seeing a man floating face down in the water. Officers commandeered a boat to retrieve the man's body and performed CPR, but he could not be revived. The man had been seen earlier in a small rental boat with his daughter, who was missing, prompting a major search operation.

About 45 minutes after the initial emergency call, a friend of the man contacted police with concerns for the welfare of both the father and child, having received messages indicating the man's intentions. After a search lasting nearly seven hours, divers located the girl's body on the riverbed around 5:30 p.m.

Authorities revealed the man had hired a runabout from Cabarita Point Marina three times in the week leading up to the incident, including once with his wife, which investigators believe was used to plan the tragedy. Police sources said...