Helena Wright’s husband makes heartbreaking return to empty family home after she leapt off a cliff with their babies in her arms – and faces an agonising funeral dilemma

Helena Wright’s devastated husband Brad has returned to the eerie silence of a home once filled with his children’s laughter, three weeks after their mother plunged from a South Australian clifftop with both babies in her arms. 

In the days after the bodies of Ms Wright, 36, and her 23-month-old daughter Hazel were found floating lifelessly in the perilous ocean below Cape Northumberland, near Port MacDonnell, police announced they were investigating the deaths as a murder-suicide.

The Wrights’ other child, three-month-old son Lewis, remains missing, with police calling off the search for him in the days after Helena’s fatal July 27 plunge. 

Mr Wright, a Mt Gambier electrician, fled to his parents Karen and Ian’s nearby semi-rural home in the wake of the incomprehensible tragedy.

On Tuesday, he returned alone to his empty home in Compton on the outskirts of the Limestone Coast city – quite possibly for the first time since his wife drove 30 minutes from the three-bedroom property and leapt from the cliff with his children.

He was seen retrieving two black bags from his car in the front yard, where a swing once occupied by Hazel, a playful child who neighbours say spent hours being pushed by her parents, hung limply from a tree in the cold morning air. 

It is understood Ms Wright suffered from postnatal depression – something her husband had discussed openly with family members in the weeks after Lewis was born. 

‘Brad told me Helena had been struggling a bit with postnatal depression, and was quite open about it,’ said a relative, who asked not to be named.

‘He said it would come and go, but he thought she was getting through it… but obviously not.’

Also on Tuesday, Mr Wright was spotted grabbing coffee with a woman in Mt Gambier, where the Daily Mail approached him for comment.

Mr Wright, who shared a deeply Christian faith with his late wife, did not respond when asked if he had forgiven Helena.

He declined to answer further questions.

It is understood Mr Wright has engaged the services of a local funeral home, but faces an agonising wait for the remains of Ms Wright and Hazel to be returned from the coroner.

Ms Wright, who was born in Estonia, has family poised to fly to South Australia from across Europe and the United States once the bodies are released.

A GoFundMe, which described Ms Wright as ‘stepping from a cliff with her beautiful babies in her arms into the arms of her waiting savior [sic]’, was launched to help cover their travel expenses and funeral costs.

Donations have reached $43,000 of a $75,000 target.

Previously, a source close to Mr Wright said he wasn’t sure how to mark Lewis’s death given that searchers were unable to locate the infant’s remains. Police said there was ‘zero chance’ he had survived.

A small, unofficial memorial for Ms Wright, Hazel and Lewis has been assembled at the Cape Northumberland lookout, which on Tuesday included two stuffed bunnies, a pink one and a blue one, as well as a dragon toy and flowers.

A small cross had been freshly carved into the weather-beaten wooden railing nearby. 

Adding to the trauma of the Wright trio’s deaths is the enduring mystery surrounding why she had attended the Mt Gambier police station the day before she died – a Sunday, when the station has limited staffing.

She was reportedly told to go home and return the following day.

Instead, police received a call for a welfare check to her address from a friend at 9.32am on the Monday. 

According to a neighbour, Mr Wright had already left for work by that time. 

When two patrol officers arrived, they found her Compton home empty, with no car in the driveway.

At 11.15am, her white Isuzu M-UX was reported abandoned at the Cape Northumberland lookout car park, with its engine still running.

Minutes later, an officer spotted the bodies of an adult woman and a small child in the churning, rocky waters below, which were retrieved by local fishermen amid challenging weather conditions. 

Making Ms Wright’s death all the more tragic are the details of the journey from the home she bought with Mr Wright about four years ago to the lonely, wind-buffeted clifftop 6km from the seaside fishing village of Port MacDonnell. 

‘It’s a 30-minute drive from her place to the Cape – and she would have passed the road Brad’s parents lived on. Why couldn’t she have at least stopped to drop the kids off?’ one source close to the situation said.

‘From there, it’s a long, beautiful drive through rolling farmland toward a stunning coastline. She had time to reconsider, but obviously she was too far gone. It’s devastating.’

In the three weeks since Ms Wright died, new details about the desperate young mother have slowly come to light.  

It’s understood she lived a quiet life as a stay-at-home mum, making her children’s clothes and creating a sustainable permaculture garden with her husband.

She volunteered at the local toy library, but was otherwise ‘very private’, say friends. 

Along with reportedly suffering from postnatal depression, a woman close to Ms Wright revealed she suffered debilitating migraines and exhaustion in the wake of Lewis’ birth. 

The couple, who are believed to have met in Melbourne, married around 2023 at the Mt Gambier Presbyterian Church, but later left the congregation and tried out the Liberty church and the Open Door Baptist Church.

But after this so-called ‘church-hopping’, it’s understood they worshipped via a ‘home church’ with like-minded friends.

A Presbyterian elder described Ms Wright as ‘bubbly and friendly’, while Mr Wright was more ‘staid and serious’.

‘We were disappointed when they left,’ the elder said, adding that the couple had strong anti-authority views after suffering through Victoria’s Covid lockdowns.

‘We were probably too strict for them,’ he told the Daily Mail.

A friend said their self-sufficient lifestyle was linked to their Christianity.

‘They were both pretty old-school about their religion,’ the source said.

‘Brad’s family is not religious, and he never was before Helena, but when he met her he went into it.

‘It didn’t seem the sort of thing Brad would like, but he seemed happy enough.’

Before the couple married, Mr Wright was known around Mt Gambier for his BMX trail-riding skills and playing in a local band.

After meeting Ms Wright, who was close with his parents and sister, joining them on family camping trips, he became a ‘tremendous father and husband’.

The tragedy has touched many Australians, prompting renewed calls for greater support for new mothers experiencing postnatal depression.

According to Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Australia, one in seven Australian women are affected by the condition during the first year after giving birth.

Symptoms include low mood, changes in sleep and appetite, and feelings of hopelessness. Headaches and migraines can also occur due to hormonal changes, sleep deprivation and stress.

The passing of Ms Wright, Hazel and Lewis has also prompted an internal investigation within South Australia Police, with commissioner Grant Stevens recently conceding that she did have contact with an officer the day before she died. 

He told Adelaide media he ‘could not disclose the content of that interaction’.

In a statement to the Daily Mail on Wednesday, a SAPOL spokesperson confirmed that a ‘review of police actions is underway following the incident and that police are preparing a mandatory report for the Coroner’.

‘There are two concurrent processes: an internal police review of SAPOL’s response and the coronial investigation into the causes and circumstances of the deaths.’

A coronial investigation is underway.

If you or someone you know needs support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636.