A 10-year-old girl has been found dead at her home on the Gold Coast, triggering a murder investigation.
Police Inspector Lou Serafim said a relative, who is now assisting police with their investigation, called triple zero about 6pm today after finding the girl.
Emergency services rushed to a unit complex on Central Place, Carrara, just inland from Surfers Paradise.
They found the girl unresponsive and declared her dead.
“At this point in time, we’re treating the death of the 10-year-old girl as suspicious, and investigations are currently under way in relation to the demise of the girl,” Serafim said.
“The triple zero call was made by a relative who was at the incident scene when they located the 10-year-old girl.”
Police set up a crime scene, notified the girl’s next of kin, launched a homicide investigation and were working to determine what happened.
Serafim said police and paramedics who responded to the incident were receiving internal counselling “in relation to the incident that they were exposed to”.
“My staff, the … first responders, and also the emergency services from the Queensland ambulance service, have entered a scene that is quite traumatic,” Seraphim said.
Officers were seen speaking to neighbours and other members of the public throughout the evening.
Seraphim didn’t say who the relative helping police was but said they were being “very cooperative”.
Neighbour Chris Sydes said his first reaction when he saw police arrive at the home was “heartache”.
“It’s just a terrible, terrible event, terrible, breaks your heart,” he said.
“Shouldn’t happen in this street.”
