Australian Man Who Killed Two Children Then Hanged Himself Suffered from Anxiety Disorder

Police have begun to uncover clues believed to lie behind the actions of an Australian man with the initials SDJ (56), who allegedly killed his two children before taking his own life by hanging. According to testimony from his wife, TY (32), given to police, SDJ suffered from an anxiety disorder. He had endured the mental illness for a considerable time, with periodic relapses, but it was never treated medically.

“From the wife’s account, they quarrelled in 2022 and her husband suffered from high levels of anxiety,” said the Chief of the Denpasar Police, Commissioner Leonardo Simatupang, when met at Bali Regional Police Headquarters on Tuesday (15/9/2026).

The couple also nearly divorced in 2022. However, because of her husband’s anxiety, the Indonesian woman ultimately chose not to divorce him, fearing it would trigger a relapse of his condition. His anxiety was so severe that SDJ had threatened to take his own life.

SDJ even attempted suicide roughly a month before the incident. At the time, the man born in Fremantle, Australia, tried to end his life by wrapping an iron’s electrical cord around his neck. The attempt, however, failed.

“Last month, his wife reported that her husband had once attempted suicide by locking himself in a room and wrapping a rope, or the iron’s cable, around his neck,” he said.

For this reason, the couple, who had been married for more than six years, frequently experienced domestic disharmony. Nevertheless, in the period leading up to the incident, they had not been involved in any quarrels.

TY’s departure for Jakarta at the time of the incident was not due to an argument with her husband. Rather, she had travelled to visit her parents, who live in Jakarta.

As previously reported, SDJ allegedly killed his two children, identified by the initials ADS (6) and LKS (4), at the bungalow where the family lived in Legian, Kuta, Badung Regency. He then ended his own life by hanging.

Following the incident, police planned to carry out autopsies on the victims’ bodies. However, the family rejected the plan, and the bodies of all three have since been returned to the family.