Loading At night, Mr Manrique was helping with the children and cooking dinner, acts that, if he'd only performed them earlier, Ms Lutz bemoaned to her friends, could have helped salvage their marriage. "I think he formed a very clear intention during that time," Sergeant Pooley told the inquest before Deputy State Coroner Elaine Truscott. "That was his final farewell." On the morning of October 17, police conducted a welfare check at the home after Ms Lutz's friend Nichole Brimble noticed the devoted mother had failed to turn up to her volunteer shift at the school canteen, and learnt the children were not at school.

The officers found the entire family and their pet dog Tequila dead inside the northern Sydney home. They also found two cylinders of carbon monoxide in the backyard shed, connected to the house. The five-day judicial probe will focus on the sourcing of carbon monoxide after it was heard that Mr Manrique had the cylinders of the odourless gas delivered to the Parklea home of friends, telling a delivery driver he would be taking them to a building site on the Central Coast. Andrea and Jairo Campos, who took delivery of the carbon monoxide cylinders for Mr Manrique, leave the Coroners Court on Monday. Credit:AAP The court heard it was of real concern that Mr Manrique was able to obtain carbon monoxide canisters "without too many questions being asked". In his opening address, counsel assisting the coroner, Adam Casselden, said Mr Manrique bought the gas from his company account and asked a friend to take delivery of the cylinders.

He said he was running tests for a government contract related to "gas released by cars in underground car parks" as he picked them up from the home of Andrea and Jairo Campos on October 11, paying Mrs Campos $400. "The evidence will show little cause for doubt that Fernando was responsible for sourcing the carbon monoxide," Mr Casselden told the inquest. Nichole Brimble, who noticed Maria Lutz had not shown up for school canteen duty, outside the Coroners Court on Monday. Credit:AAP The inquest heard that, initial speculation that Ms Lutz was aware of Mr Manrique's fatal plan, would be dispelled by the steps he took to hide it from her, and because of her happiness at securing $50,000 in government funding to help with the care of Elisa and Martin. In a statement to the court, Ms Truscott said it was clear from the evidence of Ms Lutz's large network of friends that "Maria loved her life, loved her children and had every intention of continuing a very loving, giving and productive life with her children".

Sergeant Pooley said the funding from the National Disability Insurance Scheme meant Ms Lutz "would've been better off than she had been for years". The court also heard Mr Manrique had taken a huge pay cut following a redundancy, that his credit card was maxed out, and the family trust account had just $6 in it at the time of their deaths. Maria Lutz with her two children, Martin, 10 and Elisa, 11. The court heard Mr Manrique was having an affair with a woman who was 17 when he met her while on a work trip in the Philippines in 2015. "When he had tax instalments due, he was sending gifts to the girlfriend in the amounts of thousands of dollars," Sergeant Pooley said.

The inquest heard Mr Manrique confided in a friend that the marriage had become strained and that he would "hook up" with other girls while travelling, but it would be "unacceptable" for Ms Lutz to see someone else. Ms Lutz and Mr Manrique had met in Colombia before moving to Australia, where they began their family. Ms Lutz had told friends that she knew of Mr Manrique's infidelities, that the pair no longer slept in the same bed and that divorce was imminent. "There was no indication that he was wanted, or that this relationship was going to keep going by him being there," Sergeant Pooley said. Representatives from BOC and trucking company Linfox, contracted to deliver the gas at the time, will be called as the inquest scrutinises regulations surrounding the supply of carbon monoxide. Addressing Ms Lutz's friends in the courtroom, Ms Truscott said that, while that was the focus of the inquest, "please do not think for a minute I have lost focus of what we're doing here. And that is the deaths of three very innocent people."

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