TO the outside world, they were a close and loving family.
Jason Lees, a popular private school teacher and successful international rugby referee, his wife Danielle Cara Sutton, a psychologist. Their two-year-old son a normal, well-adjusted boy.
Their seemingly happy life together makes it even harder to understand what could have driven Mr Lees to take his son to Brisbane's Story Bridge in the early hours of yesterday, throw him over the edge, before jumping himself.
It was the second murder-suicide involving a parent and child at the city landmark in just five months.
Local resident Craig Cooper told Fairfax media he witnessed the tragedy from his nearby balcony, describing a "blood curdling scream".
"I just heard this scream, it was blood curdling," he said. "I don't think I could describe it, it was unbelievable. I caught a glimpse of a falling thing, it was tiny.
"A few seconds later, he (Mr Lees) jumped, it was unmistakeable this time that it was a body."
The final journey of Mr Lees and his son began when he took the toddler from their home in Seven Hills, in Brisbane's southeast, about 2.30am and drove to Kangaroo Point.
He then strapped him into the babyseat of his bicycle and rode the remaining couple of hundred metres to the outbound side of the bridge where he jumped over the safety rail.
The man's bike was left on the footpath. The bodies were removed hours later, about 8am.
Neighbours shocked
Neighbours say Mr Lees was the "best dad a kid could want" and his son Brad was "a beautiful kid", The Courier-Mail reports.
"Life's cruel. Only he knows why he did it. He was a lovely guy, a nice guy, you could tell. I'd give him a wave. It was always so lovely to hear them laugh," one neighbour said.
"I was awoken at about two-thirty, two-forty-five when I heard doors opening and shutting, but I didn't think anything of it," a neighbour said.
"I thought maybe he had to catch a plane, it was so early in the morning, so I didn't get out of bed to see. I wish that he had told someone, confided in his own dad. He was the best dad a kid could want."
"He was a lovely boy," another neighbour said. "He would wave to you if you saw them out the front."
Another neighbour said: "They were just a lovely family. I guess she will just have to try to put her life back together. It's just her now."
Mr Lees, 40, originally from Canada, worked at the prestigious Anglican Church Grammar School (known as Churchie) and his son attended preschool there.
Headmaster Jonathan Hensman said he started at the school in 2007 after six years at The Southport School on the Gold Coast.
"Jason was a highly regarded and much loved teacher whose kindness to his students, his gentlemanly approach and enthusiasm for teaching were acknowledged by students, parents and staff alike," he said.
"He was an outstanding teacher and very generous contributor to the whole of our program, not just the classroom, which adds to the shock of the circumstances surrounding this."
He spoke fondly of Mr Lees' son: "He was a lovely boy and that just adds to the tragedy."
A teacher at the school said staff were upset to have lost one of their own. "He was a really good man," one said.
Mr Lees' students will also be offered counselling.
"All of the families concerned have been phoned and we've asked them to talk through the issues with their sons tonight so they've had that opportunity first," Mr Hensman said.
"We'll talk through more deeply with the boys with our counselling programs."
Detective Superintendent Michael Niland said investigations were continuing and that the family was "suffering an immense amount of grief".
Every year an average of four lives are lost on the Story Bridge which features handrails rising to just 1.4m.
The Australian Institute of Suicide Prevention and Research recommended in 2004 Brisbane City Council look at improvements including a full cage over the walkway.
But Deputy Mayor Adrian Schrinner said this would not work because "there's a number of cliffs around Brisbane, a number of rail crossings".
In September, Kim Patterson murdered her 14-year-old daughter Sidonie, before grabbing her 12-year-old son and driving to the Story Bridge, where she jumped off.
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