A lawyer has opened up about the agonising moment she learnt her client and her three children had been brutally murdered by an abusive ex-husband.
Kelli Martin, a Queensland family criminal defence and domestic violence lawyer, said the guilt was ‘overwhelming’ when she heard about the tragedy of Hannah Clarke and her three children on February 19, 2020.
‘I fell to the floor, sobbed and I screamed,’ Ms Martin said.
‘How did I not see this coming? How could I have done this differently? What did I not do right? How have I just lost someone?’
Kelli Martin (pictured) spoke out about the ‘overwhelming grief’ she felt after finding out about the brutal death of her client
‘That was my initial response, I think everybody blames themselves; what could I have done differently, how could I have saved people?’ she told the Courier Mail.
On the morning of February 19 Ms Martin returned to her law firm, KLM Solicitors, after a board meeting however didn’t know about her client’s death until a co-worker broke the news.
Hannah Clarke, 31, and her kids, Aaliyah, six, Laianah, four, and Trey, three had died that morning at the hands of Hannah’s ex-husband, Rowan Baxter.
Mr Baxter had jumped into the front passenger seat of Ms Clarke’s car as she prepared to take the kids to school from her parents’ home in Camp Hill.
Her estranged husband was carrying a brand new jerry can full of petrol and a knife, and set the car alight before taking his own life.
Ms Clarke (pictured centre with her children Aaliyah and Laianah) contacted the family and domestic violence lawyer after her ex-husband Rowan Baxter had taken Laianah one day
Ms Clarke’s car was set alight with a can of petrol by her estranged husband in February, 2020, instantly killing her three children (pictured, Ms Clarke’s burnt out car following the tragedy)
The mum-of-three had contacted Ms Martin only two months prior asking for help after Mr Baxter had taken her middle child.
‘She was frantic, she had a child taken but was still very level-headed, she was always very level-headed and composed,’ Ms Martin said.
‘She wanted advice on the quickest way to get her back.’
‘She was my client for maybe six or seven weeks, such a short period of time but a very intense time,’ the lawyer added.
Hannah Clarke had contacted Ms Martin only two months prior to the tragedy (pictured, centre with her children Aaliyah and Laianah)
‘We would message each other or speak to each other nearly every day.’
A funeral for Ms Clarke and her children Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey was held a little over a month after the tragedy on March 9, 2020 at Citi Point Church in Mansfield.
Ms Clarke was the first client the family lawyer had lost during her 15 years practising law.
‘You realise you can’t feel like that anymore and you need to do something about it,’ she said.
The scene where Hannah Clarke and her children were murdered quickly became a shrine (pictured, a woman believed to be a friend of the victim walking to the site of the incident)
‘I wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again.’
In the years following the crime that rocked the nation, Ms Martin said her caseload has become predominantly domestic violence matters.
‘I seem to be the go-to solicitor for high-risk domestic violence cases now.’
The family and domestic violence lawyer said she knows her purpose and what keeps her going in this confronting industry.
‘I can help save people,’ she said.
‘If I’m not helping people, I’m not contributing to a better world.
‘It’s what I was put here to do.’
