Breaking: Deaths of woman and toddler being treated as murder-suicide, police say

Deaths of woman and toddler being treated as murder-suicide, police say Wed 29 Jul 2026 at 12:19pm , updatedWed 29 Jul 2026 at 12:53pm South Australia Police have confirmed the deaths of a woman and her toddler found in water off the state’s south-east coast are being treated as a murder-suicide. Helena Wright, 36, and her 23-month-old daughter were spotted in the water on Monday, after her car was found abandoned with its engine running near Port MacDonnell. Ms Wright's three-month-old son remains missing, with police saying they will continue to scour the area in the coming days and weeks. Police say decisions will be made later today about how much longer the search for the baby will continue. Superintendent Trent Cox, officer in charge of the Limestone Coast region, said the search operation was now focused on finding and retrieving the body of the infant. "The reality is after three days, the chances of finding the baby alive is zero,"he said. "Sadly it's a retrieval effort, but we don't know where he is." Superintendent Cox said the conditions in area had hindered search efforts, with water assets still unable to be launched. "The SES has been able to get an aerial drone up, we did consider the use of an underwater drone but once again the water conditions are not favourable for that so we are not deploying that," he said. Police said SES crews would be arriving from Adelaide today to help with the search efforts. Loading