Sydney boating accident turns out to be murder-suicide: Note found after Indian man dies with daughter
Two bodies were found in Sydney’s Parramatta River on Saturday and investigators discovered a suicide note, leading authorities to classify the incident as a murder-suicide. Police were called when witnesses told them they saw a man floating in the water. The same man was seen earlier on the boat with a child. The man was identified as 47-year-old Maulik Dhandhukia, an Indian-origin man living in Australia with his family.Danhukiya is believed to have thrown the child from the boat and then jumped into the river. Neither of them can swim. When the father rented a boat, he packed a life jacket for himself and his children. They apparently originally wore these jackets but later threw them away.Police said they found a suicide note on the boat after Dahukia’s body was discovered. The body of a six-year-old girl was found from a river bed on Saturday night.Local officials told police the man had rented the boat at least twice before, once with a woman and child, possibly his family. This is the third time he has taken his daughter on a boat trip.Just weeks before the tragedy, Dhandhukia had written publicly about suffering from chronic neck pain following an injury sustained at the gym in 2005. He said in social media posts that the injury affected much of his life. “All in all, probably 70 to 90 percent of the problems I’ve had in my life have been caused by neck pain,” he wrote.Police said Danhukia was not known to police and there was no violence warrant for his arrest.Dhandhukia previously worked as an Application Support Analyst for the South East Sydney Local Health District and has previously held roles in the technology sector in Australia and India.Family members have launched a fundraiser for Pritiben Dhadhukia, whose wife is seeking financial help to meet immediate expenses.
