A year before the killings, Geoff Hunt visited a counsellor at the Wagga Wagga Self Empowerment Centre where he was asked, "Who are your most important people?"
His wife and children were at the top of the list.
His biggest fear? Being alone, he said.
A week or so later, the farmer attended his third and final session at the centre. He reported feeling much better.
Then in September last year, Mr Hunt took out a shotgun, locked its safe, returned the keys to their usual spot and shot his whole family in the head at point-blank range before shooting himself.
This was the man friends and family described as generous and patient. A charming character, a gentle father, a dedicated husband.
How could a man who had never raised his voice murder his family? For four days this week, the NSW Coroner's Court at Wagga Wagga grappled with the question.
"Massacres must not be swept under the carpet merely because they occurred in the home of the deceased at the hands of a family member," State Coroner Michael Barnes said on Friday.
"What Geoff Hunt did was inexcusable, the absolute worst of crimes."
Kim Hunt, 41, was found dead on the garden path of the family's "Watch Hill" property near Lockhart in south-west NSW. Her three children, Fletcher, 10, Mia, 8, and Phoebe, 6, were found dead on separate beds inside the house. A day later, police recovered the body of Mr Hunt, 44, from a nearby dam, along with the shotgun.
A NSW police handwriting analyst testified that Mr Hunt had written the note on the dining room table that said: "I'm sorry, it's all my fault, totally mine."
Investigators had excluded Mrs Hunt as a suspect almost immediately. The injuries she sustained in a 2012 car crash would have made it extremely difficult for her to wield and reload the heavy antique gun. When they found her body, she was wearing the splint that kept her half-paralysed hand splayed open through the night.
Again and again, the inquest returned to the topic of how Mrs Hunt had changed after the accident. Her family said that focus was painful. Despite the brain and spinal injuries, Mrs Hunt had in many ways remained the same - affectionate, protective and driven.
"As a mother I strive to be like her," Jenny Geppert, Mrs Hunt's sister, told the inquest.
Mrs Hunt had worked hard to regain her driver's licence and to return to work as a nurse. When the family's disability support worker, Lorraine Bourke, was asked if she would say Mrs Hunt was determined, she replied: "Yes, definitely." Laughter came from the public gallery, from those who knew Mrs Hunt best.
But they had also seen her angry and uninhibited because of the brain injury. Sometimes she would swear at the children without realising. She would often take her rage out on her husband.
Coroner Barnes noted the couple had suffered depression before the accident but found "after the crash, family dynamics deteriorated severely".
Most times Mr Hunt would say "that's enough" to his wife's criticism. But Ms Bourke, the last person to see the Hunt family alive, remembered Mr Hunt said nothing when rebuked on that final night. She saw in him the signs of depression she had felt in herself. A quiet man had grown quieter.
Mrs Hunt was particularly angry with him. "You could cut the air with a knife," Ms Bourke said. As his wife needled, Mr Hunt made the school lunches, cooked dinner and watched Home and Away with his children. He told his brother he would go to a grain meeting the next day. He arranged to play tennis the day after.
Mr Hunt was likely depressed and acted on impulse, having internalised his stress over years, according to a senior police psychologist, Sarah Yule. Dr Yule said in cases such as Mr Hunt's, suicide was probably the main motive.
The Coroner agreed with the psychologist, describing the murders as the cold-blooded and systematic actions of someone with "distorted logic".
"It was completely unnecessary," he said. "It was the result of an egocentric delusion that his wife and children would be better off dying than living without him."
There had been no recrimination from Mrs Hunt's family when victim impact statements were read on Thursday. "We have all suffered enough," Mrs Geppert told the Hunt family.
Mr Hunt's brother and sister-in-law said they could still not comprehend the loss.
"We can only imagine the depth of desperation, pain and isolation Geoff must have felt," Allen and Renae Hunt said in a statement.
"Somewhere, between right and wrong, there is a garden," they said, quoting the Persian poet Rumi. "We will meet you there."
National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service 1800 737 732
Lifeline 131 114
Mensline 1300 789 978
Kids Helpline 1800 551 800
