Not Another “Accident”: The Wyndham Vale Lake Crash

It looked like it was just another car crash. Four children were in the car, only the fourth child, their sister, survived the accident, if indeed it was really an accident.

Akon Goude, a migrant from South Sudan, was driving the car when it went into Lake Gladman in Melbourne on April 8. She claimed she got dizzy just before the accident and could not remember much of what had happened after the incident. Or at least that’s what she claimed when she was being questioned.

Akon is the mother of the four children in the car and she is now facing charges for murder. Investigations are on-going and the police are hoping to find more answers as they have so far only one witness, a mother pushing a pram, within the perimeter when Akon’s car went into the lake. The police are still hoping more witnesses are going to come forward.

They admitted that the Wyndham Vale incident will be a lengthy and a difficult investigation.

The detectives both from the major collisions and homicide squad said that reconstructing the accident helped them establish the path of the vehicle and helped them find out how fast Akon was driving before it went into the water. The recreation of the car crash was only a part of the investigation and police said that they’re working towards getting more information.

The initial investigations

The initial investigations pointed to the fact that it would have been impossible for the car to end up in the lake because of the wide road in Wyndham Vale. The reconstruction also led the investigators to believe that Akon could have only driven the car across a grassy strip and over a footpath to end up in the lake, which was unlikely if the car was not driven down there on purpose.

The father of the four children, Joseph Manyang, was among the many Sudanese sympathizers who visited Akon in her Wyndham Vale home after the questionable accident. When interviewed by SBS radio, Joseph said he did not believe that his partner, Akon, killed her children saying, “She could not do that to them and she loved them.” Another close relative also said the same thing about Akon.

The case is an ongoing investigation and unfortunately, an addition to a list of unsolved crimes involving children.

Not the first case of this kind.

The Wyndham Vale case strikes a very familiar chord. It’s a dark, horrific memory that any of us would rather push away, but can’t, because it’s a Father’s Day story that haunted all of us for many years and yes, in the true story, three children also die senselessly.

In 2005, Robert Farquharson took his three children out on Father’s Day. They were two-year-old Bailey, seven-year-old Tyler, and 10-year old Jai. On their way home after what seemed like another fine day for the boys, Robert drove his car into the dam leaving the three boys to drown, while he swam out to safety.

If one asked the question “why” a thousand times he or she would still not get to an answer. You can only mourn the death of the children you never knew and loathe Robert Farquharson for using his children to get back at his wife for leaving him for another man.

The case made an unexpected turn when during Robert Farquharson’s second trial, after he made an appeal (he was found guilty by the jury in the first trial), Cindy Gambino, his ex-wife turned against him and believed he did murder their children to punish her.

After six weeks of trial, he was found guilty and subject to three terms of life imprisonment.

Why do these parents do this kind of thing to one of their own?

Feature Picture Photo Credit: www.theage.com.au