THE APPALLING tragedy where a father killed his six-year-old daughter before committing suicide was outlined to a hushed Isle of Wight Coroner’s Court in Newport today (Tuesday). 

Darren Flux-Edmonds, 44, drowned his daughter, Keziah, in the bath at the family home in Cromwell Avenue, East Cowes, before he hanged himself on June 1 this year.

He also drowned the family’s two pet dogs. 

Mr Flux-Edmonds had agreed to baby-sit his daughter that day as he was separated from his wife, Nicola. 

But she received a 'chilling’ text message from him saying "I will leave you with nothing but memories" after she left the house for work, prompting her to believe something was seriously wrong, she then called the police.

Distraught officers battled to save Keziah when they arrived at the property but she was later pronounced dead at St Mary’s Hospital.

They had discovered Mr Flux-Edmonds’s body hanging through the loft hatch before finding Keziah’s lifeless body lying on a bed in the bedroom with her arms around the two pets.

Coroner Caroline Sumeray concluded Keziah had been unlawfully killed and that Mr Flux-Edmonds had committed suicide.

For the full story, see the County Press on Friday, December 16.