Karina Lock (49), shot dead by her estranged partner at Helensvale McDonalds

[hazydaze]

UPDATED: A MOTHER of four shot dead in front of horrified diners at a Helensvale McDonald?s restaurant had only just moved to the Gold Coast to start a new life.

Karina Lock, 49, left her old life - and her former partner Stephen - behind in Maryborough last month to make a fresh start with her teenage daughter on the Gold Coast.

She agreed to meet her estranged partner at the suburban McDonald?s restaurant just after 9am on Thursday morning.

Minutes later, she was shot in the head and died on the floor of the restaurant as diners and employees cowered in terror.

The gunman then turned the weapon on himself.

Mr Lock is on life support with serious head injuries and is not expected to survive

http://m.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/ne...-1227520604342

[hazydaze]

Karina's facebook -https://www.facebook.com/karina.lock.7

Stephen's facebook -https://www.facebook.com/steve.lock.1426?fref=pb&hc_location=friends_tab&pn ref=friends.all

[emylou]

She tried to stay safe by meeting in a public place. I feel so sorry for her and her family and friends.

Four children without a Mother because of this fucking loser. I hope he survives and I hope he suffers.

Rip Karina

Burn in hell Stephen

[Bewitchingstorm]

This is horrible. It seems like each day there is another post or two or three about domestic/intimate partner violence that led to murder.

RIP Karina. You didn't deserve what happened to you.

[Live2Love]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/bradesposito...rm=.ax1lPepQ47

[emylou]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/bradesposito...rm=.ax1lPepQ47

That is a great link, it is also confronting and so sad. I can't believe what is happening in qld. ❤

[hazydaze]

Stephen has died - http://mypolice.qld.gov.au/blog/2015...nt-helensvale/

A 57-year-old Maryborough man involved in a fatal shooting incident in Helensvale has died in hospital this morning.

Police were called to a fast food outlet in Signato Drive around 9.15am yesterday after a 49-year-old Maryborough woman was fatally shot by a man.

No one else was physically injured as a result of the incident. Investigations are continuing and police will prepare a report for the Coroner.

[Ruujin]

I honestly hope they withheld pain relief for him. Not sad he is gone, he wouldn't have had a long sentence in QLD, even with half the population and 26 security cameras watching him do it and I'm pretty sure if he has that little regard for the mother of his children he has no empathy for anyone else. What a coward.

[Bellaboo]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/bradesposito...rm=.ax1lPepQ47

Interesting and depressing situation. No refuge for women and for those who try to escape their abusers.
Very sad and tragic.





to escape

[hazydaze]

I was reading some comments earlier from people (mostly males) stating that the figure isn't all that shocking. What I don't think people realise in there are more people in some US states than there are in the whole of Australia so yeah, 62 women in 37 weeks is a big deal.

[emylou]

I was reading some comments earlier from people (mostly males) stating that the figure isn't all that shocking. What I don't think people realise in there are more people in some US states than there are in the whole of Australia so yeah, 62 women in 37 weeks is a big deal.

Yeah. I just checked the Australian Bureau of Stats page and it states we are just shy of 24 million in the whole of Australia -

On 11 September 2015 at 01:25:38 PM (Canberra time), the resident population of Australia is projected to be:
23,893,365

California's polulation is approx 38,800,000

62 women in 37 weeks is outrageous. So many children have been murdered in domestic incidents as well.

[blighted star]

And this ^ is why Aus members so often discover they have real life links to people in so many Australian cases.

[blighted star]

Poor kids. Sounds like they've been dealing with a fucked up situation for a long, long time



https://m.facebook.com/story.php?sto...00008460071125


There are a few comments across their fb's that make me wonder if this family, or at least one of them, is/was a JW. If yes they won't be wanting the DV support or attention but I guess they'll have a ready made support system in place. If it was just mum though, that "support" is probably going to become more irritating than helpful for her kids

[Ruujin]

The article I just read had the mum as a JW, and the daughter was saying she has achieved paradise.
News.com


STEPHEN Lock was a controlling and abusive husband who turned to drugs to try to level his volatile moods.

His wife Karina, 49, was a devout Jehovah’s Witness who, for religious reasons, stayed with him until she could take it no more.

Friends of the couple have revealed details of their tumultuous relationship, which ended tragically in gunfire at a McDonald’s restaurant yesterday morning.

Karina had left Stephen, 56, before, only to end up back with him when he pursued her.

But this time it was for good, and she was starting afresh with a new life on the Gold Coast without the man who had for years tormented her.

They had sold their house in Puller St at Maryborough, where they had lived for 16 years, in February last year.

By then they had already been separated but were living together. When the sold sign went up, it signalled the end of their marriage, to the relief of worried friends.
“He would take marijuana all the time to make him feel more normal. It made him worse, it made him violent,” one friend recalled.

“That was one of their arguments because she kept telling him to get off it. He used to yell. He was not nice. That went on for years and years. He believed that the law was there to be broken and he did his very best to do that.”

The couple had four children – two boys and two girls. Karina told friends at least one of her boys had been diagnosed with autism and believed her husband was affected too.

They were polar opposites. He “didn’t lift a finger” around the house and could not stand to be around his children.

Their house was divided, with a parents’ retreat at the back, as off-limits to their kids. Stephen used to read in there.
“She did everything. He just did what he wanted to do,” the friend said.

“She left him a couple of times and she went down to her parents (interstate) with the kids – just up and went, left everything,” the friend said.

“Of course he hounded her and promised he was going to change. Eventually he just reverted back all the time.”

It got worse over the years. Their children were outdoors kids, but Stephen hated mowing his lawn. So, he dug it all up, leaving only dirt and rocks left.

Karina eventually left it all behind, for the sake of herself but also for her kids.
“She was a Jehovah’s Witness. She tried to get the church members to help him so some of them used to go around and talk to him. He started going there as well and he seemed to be settling down for a while. But he always reverts back.

“She was lovely. She would help anybody. She put up with a lot, probably because of her religion.

“It got to the point where she just said `I can’t take it any more’, because of the effect it was having on the kids as well.”
KARINA Lock fled an abusive relationship to start a new life on the Gold Coast.

Yesterday, the mother of four lay dead on the floor of a suburban McDonald’s restaurant, shot in the head by her estranged partner who then turned the gun on himself as diners, employees and children cowered in fear.

Steven Lock, 56, was last night on life support with horrific self-inflicted head injuries, and was unlikely to survive.

A witness said Mrs Lock, a 49-year-old former florist and pharmacy assistant who loved cooking for her family, had been sitting in a car with her estranged husband.

She then entered the restaurant, yelling, “He’s crazy, he’s trying to kill me.” These were to be her last words.
Moving with what witnesses called chilling single-mindedness and an icy stare, Mr Lock allegedly followed his wife into the restaurant’s dining area, wrapped his arm around her and shot her in the head. As diners recoiled in terror, he stood over her body on the floor and turned the gun on himself.

One witness, who gave his name only as Peter, described a feeling of horror and helplessness as the tragedy unfolded.

“From the time he got out of the car, walked in the door and revealed the gun, his expression never changed,” he said. “It was just this vacant, unsettling stare.

“You think, was there anything I could have done? But I don’t think there was anything I could. He looked like he just had one thing in mind.”
Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Procter from Coomera Criminal Investigation Branch, said police had been left to deal with another devastating tragedy stemming from domestic violence.

“We’re investigating another tragic domestic violence incident on the Gold Coast,” he said.

“It’s early days in the investigation, as to what sparked it but we are working hard to provide answers and closure for the families involved.”

Mrs Lock left the family home in Maryborough last month, seeking a fresh start on the Gold Coast with her teenage daughter and away from her husband. It is understood there is a long history of domestic violence allegations involving the couple.

She agreed to meet him yesterday at the Helensvale McDonald’s on Siganto Drive, a restaurant where there were almost 20 staff and diners at the time.

Minutes later she was dead.
Responding police officers and paramedics worked on Mrs Lock for six minutes before she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Her husband lost consciousness about the same time and was taken to Gold Coast University Hospital in a serious condition with self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head.

One of the couple’s children, who had been staying with an aunt, arrived at the scene while her mother’s body lay under a police tarpaulin.

The daughter was comforted by family members.

Last night, relatives in Maryborough were making arrangements for the harrowing journey to the Gold Coast to say their goodbyes.
Mrs Lock’s daughter took to social media last night to say her Jehovah’s Witness mother had “already made it to paradise’’.

[Ruujin]

if Ive overstepped the mark please delete.

[blighted star]

Uggh. Every word describing him could be about my kid's dad. Every time we split I spent months wndering if these were my last days. It's been 5 yrs, we've only seen him once, for 5 mins in the last 3 yrs, but I'm still not sure the danger has passed. I'm not sure it ever will.

[Kelly-Jane]

https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008460071125

[emylou]

Uggh. Every word describing him could be about my kid's dad. Every time we split I spent months wndering if these were my last days. It's been 5 yrs, we've only seen him once, for 5 mins in the last 3 yrs, but I'm still not sure the danger has passed. I'm not sure it ever will.

Hun, that's awful. Well done for being such an inspiration for you kiddies.
You must have been through some terrifying times and to still feel unsafe is simply not fair. I fucking hate these types of men and women. Controlling, egotistical, childish assholes. How dare they.

[Kelly-Jane]

I skimmed past before... Sorry. That's a shit place to be blighted.

[emylou]

https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008460071125

Jeez that poor kid. What a confusing and fucked up situation.