Mother of autistic children shares experience in wake of suspected double murder-suicide

Jo Russell has shared her story of navigating bureaucracy while caring for children with complex needs — and the desperate moment she considered taking her own life.

It comes after last Friday’s suspected double murder-suicide, where teenagers Leon and Otis Clune, who lived with disabilities, were found dead in their Mosman Park home along with their parents, Jarrod Clune, 50, and Maiwenna Goasdoue, 49.

“It’s been a very difficult week … it hit a nerve with me,” Ms Russell said.

“I’ve walked in their shoes and I was so close to perhaps taking that course of action [suicide], but I didn’t.

Ms Russell stressed her children were a “gift”, rather than a “burden”.

“I was in that dark space five or six years ago, and I want to share my story, because it’s the isolation when you have very complex children to look after, when you have to fight and advocate every day and find the strength to carry on,” she said.

Mother’s personal struggle

A former registered nurse and long-time disability advocate, Ms Russell has three children and has lived most of her life in the regional mining city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, about 600 kilometres east of Perth.

Her son Daniel, 35, was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome in the 1990s, which is now considered part of the autism spectrum.

Her daughter Megan, 21, also has a diagnosis of profound autism and epilepsy.

In her mid-teens, Megan was also prone to aggressive, violent outbursts.

In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Ms Russell walked out of the emergency department at Kalgoorlie Hospital and left her daughter with a carer.

She had no intention of returning until she had found the help she needed after reaching her lowest point.

“To this day, I can’t believe I left my own daughter behind,” she said.

“I’d reached the point where I went to bed each night praying I didn’t wake up the next day.

“I’d wake up in the middle of the night thinking where’s the screaming coming from, and there was no screaming, it was the screaming in my head.

“It was reflective of the screaming that went on all day, every day. Without supportive family and friends, I would not have lasted as long as I did.”

But she described a dark period when Megan, who is largely non-verbal, would attack her mother on multiple occasions, breaking her arm in one incident.

“I was at my wits’ end, she was throwing furniture at school, and often it became just another hole in the wall,” she said.

“She would switch from charming and bright and happy to violent and aggressive in a few seconds, and I could not work out what brought on these episodes.

“I felt failure as a mother, I felt the distress of Daniel having to cope with the erratic and aggressive behaviours of his sister, because I was honestly frightened that someone was going to die or be seriously injured.”

A ‘multi-system failure’

After a month-long stay in hospital in Perth and a new diagnosis which resulted in a change of medication for her daughter, Ms Russell said her behaviour did a “complete 180”.

“Now Megan is a poster child for NDIS funding, she’s got her own rental, she has around-the-clock support, for now,” she said.

“But in nine months, she has another review — will the funding be cut?

“None of us can ever rest on our laurels because the services which are meant to help us are changing all the time.

“People can’t keep up with the changes to the NDIS, and they’re scared to speak out in case they lose their funding.”

Ms Russell urged parents to share their story to remove the “awful isolation” she felt during times of adversity.

She said the reforms to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) had placed additional pressure on parents and carers in the disability sector.

“It’s a multi-system failure,” she said.

“The systems designed to support us and assist us are complex, difficult to navigate, and organisations who provide support find it difficult to gain skilled staff.

“Of course it should be easier, we’ve got to fight all the way.”

Memorial for Clune family

Disability Discrimination Commissioner Rosemary Kayess said she was heartbroken by the deaths of teenagers Otis and Leon and their parents, which remains subject to an ongoing police investigation.

“While we don’t yet know all the details, it’s important that the gravity of this situation is not diminished by the fact that the two teenagers were autistic and required support,” she said.

“There is never a justification for family violence or murder.

“Every child has the right to life, safety and support, and families should have access to help well before crisis.”

On Wednesday night, about 30 people gathered at Gibbon Park in Mosman Park and observed a minute’s silence during a memorial for the Clune family.

Among them was the Member for Cottesloe, Sandra Brewer, and the Mosman Park Mayor, Paul Shaw.

Mr Shaw said the death of the family had hit the “tight-knit” community hard.

“There’s a great deal of shock … and people are trying to process that,” Mr Shaw said.

“Events like this give people the opportunity to that processing … to come together and grieve.”

The vigil was organised by the group Mosman Park Sisterhood.

Founder Fariba Fanaian said while the event was held to remember the Clune family, she wanted others in the community to also feel supported.

“We hope that we start having a culture where people are OK with checking in on their neighbour,” Ms Fanaian said.

“The space hopefully will remind people that we are here to connect and bring the community together.”