Moments after being set on fire, Hannah Clarke showed such strength. Standing on the only part of her body not burnt, she recounted the actions of her “evil” estranged husband that killed their three children.

The 31-year-old died that day. The shocking act of fiery domestic violence that unfolded on a suburban Brisbane street made headlines across the nation and sparked a federal political response.

An inquest into the killings has given Hannah a voice through her parents.

About Rowan Baxter, the man she was married to for years, Hannah would say: “Why did you have to be such a coward and bully to us for so many years? And why couldn’t you leave us alone to just live our lives in peace? Why did you always have to have the last manipulative, vindictive word?”

That’s what Hannah’s father, Lloyd, told Thursday’s closing of the inquest.

Across eight days, Deputy State Coroner Jane Bentley heard information about the deaths of Hannah and Aaliyah, six, Laianah, four, and Trey, three, plus Baxter, who torched the family in a car on February 19, 2020.

Sue Clarke has been shattered by the death of her daughter and grandchildren.

“Not one day has passed without tears. There is no rest, no escape, every single day we spend in the shadow of that moment of what was done to our beautiful angels,” Mrs Clarke told the inquest, which she described as unthinkably confronting.

“We’ve had to relive the worst day of our lives in excruciating detail and we have heard details that perhaps were kept from us up to this point. But it has been an important exercise.”

Ms Bentley – who is due to hand down her findings later this year – has been asked to make multiple recommendations.

Among those changes is the trial of multi-disciplinary stations that bring together police and services like housing, to support domestic violence victims. There have also been calls for more specialist training for police and addressing a lack of men’s behavioural and anger management services.

Counsel assisting the coroner Jacoba Brasch QC says she believes nothing could have stopped Baxter from killing his wife, along with his three young children.

“Why? Because Baxter was evil.”

Such was his “single mindedness” and “murderous intent”, it was only a matter of time before Hannah would be killed by Baxter once they separated in late 2019.

“Hannah really was the walking dead the moment she asserted her own independence and left Baxter.”

People who knew Baxter described him as a hothead who enjoyed seeing people suffer – even vomit – when he trained them in gyms.

He once confided in Martin Coll, who knew the couple for about five years, that he contemplated an abduction at knifepoint when another relationship was breaking down years before he met Hannah.

“He had rope in his car. He was going to take them out somewhere and end it all, including himself,” Mr Coll said.

There was a road rage incident in which Baxter said he “jumped” a cyclist and “left him lying there”.

Hannah was 19 when she met New Zealand-born Baxter, who was 11 years older.

He frequently threatened to take his own life during their relationship, wanted sex every day, called Hannah a “fat pig”, wouldn’t let her wear shorts or pink clothing – “because that’s for children” – and had to win races with his young kids, the inquest was told.

“She was always walking on eggshells and trying to toe the line,” Mrs Clarke said.

Baxter also treated his mother-in-law terribly from about the time Laianah was born, thinking it was hilarious and telling her to “harden up” when he dropped her on her face, cutting her lip, while training in the gym.

“He lacked empathy with everybody,” she told the inquest.

Body worn camera footage captured in 2019 before the couple separated shows Baxter blaming Hannah after he is stopped when driving their unregistered car.

“Don’t talk to me about it, cause it’s your car,” Baxter replies, blaming her again when the officer says he was fined for the same offence years earlier.

After they separated, Baxter became increasingly suspicious and paranoid.

Hannah first spoke to police about her estranged husband on December 6, 2019, only starting to realise then she was in a domestic violence relationship.

“There’s been a lot of domestic violence, not physical, but emotional, controlling me … and it just got too much. I just couldn’t do it anymore,” she later told police, in footage played at the inquest.

Scared of antagonising the situation, Hannah didn’t get a domestic violence order at first, but on Boxing Day police issued a protection notice when Baxter took Laianah after the family met up for the children to skateboard.

A distraught Hannah tells officers Baxter – who is “just a psycho” – put the four-year-old unbuckled in the front seat of the car.

“They were in my care, I was doing a good thing by letting them see him,” she says, sobbing.

Baxter took his daughter to NSW for more than two days before police intervened, returning her to Hannah.

A temporary order was in place, pending a permanent order, but Baxter breached it on January 31, when he grabbed Hannah’s wrist during an altercation while dropping off their son.

Hannah asked about writing a will and told an officer: “I know given the opportunity he wouldn’t hesitate to kill me. I can see the look in his eyes.”

Days earlier the 42-year-old man had started penning a chilling letter – signed Row, Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey – that was only found after his death.

“Hannah, the game that you are playing is disgraceful … I’m finishing your game. I don’t want to play anymore.

“This was never ever my intention but you need to realise you can’t f*** with someone’s life like this and expect for them to just take it.

“I have told the kids that you loved them and they will miss you I’m sure. You have destroyed my life and I cannot move on.”

Hannah continued talking to domestic violence services and police, but no one thought she was in imminent danger.

CCTV footage from days before the deaths shows Baxter casually buying zip ties, cleaning fluid and a fuel can and then 4.6 litres of fuel and three Kinder Surprise chocolates at a service station.

Hannah was leaving her parents’ Camp Hill home to take the children to school when Baxter ambushed her, getting in the car.

He poured fuel inside the vehicle and set it alight. He also suffered burns, but died nearby after stabbing himself.

Hannah died the same day in hospital.

Dr Brasch says Baxter may have intended to tie up then burn Hannah, so he could be with his children.

But Baxter perhaps turned to his “plan B” when Hannah defied his instruction to keep driving by seeking help from a nearby man washing his car.

The death of Hannah and her children has put a spotlight on coercive control. 

Sue Clarke says understanding that concept won’t allow her family to watch Hannah blossom into the strong, compassionate, successful woman she was determined to be.

“But we do hope that a community that stands up against coercive control will stop others suffering the same fate and we hope it will prevent other parents and families suffering as we have suffered and spending their lives pondering that bewildering, unanswerable question – why?”

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