Girl, 11, found dead inside a Brisbane apartment complex

Police are investigating the violent killing of an 11-year-old girl in her inner Brisbane home hours before her mother was found dead.

Police were called to the flat shortly after 1.30am after family friends contacted them over concerns for the family and discovered the girl’s body.

Her 49-year-old mother’s body was found by members of the public in nearby Toowong at about 5:20am.

The 65-year-old man was arrested at his Auchenflower apartment and has been interviewed in police custody since early Tuesday morning, however no charges have been laid.

“It has been a violent death”, Queensland Police Detective Acting Superintendent Geoff Sheldon told reporters.

He said the deaths signified an “appalling tragedy” which had “come out of left field”, involving a family not previously known to police.

The girl has an eight-year-old sister who was not at the apartment block at the time.

Police said that they had been called to the residence once in the past six months on a prior occasion but no further action had been taken at the time.

“There was a call from concerned people just to go and check how they were”, the spokesperson said at a media conference. “He is horrendously upset”, Supt Sheldon said.

“Upon attending, a father was asleep in the unit and there was a child, deceased, in the bathroom”.

Anxious officers launched a search for the mother only for her to be found dead some four hours later.

The husband and father is assisting police with their investigation.

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