HEART-BREAKING questions about the deaths of five members of the Hunt family on their Lockhart farm last September are expected to be answered at a four-day inquest in October.
Kim Hunt, 41, her 10-year-old son Fletcher and her daughters Mia, 8, and Phoebe, 6, were found dead at the family home on September 9.
The body of Mrs Hunt’s 44-year-old husband, Geoff, was found in a nearby dam the next day.
All five are believed to have suffered gunshot wounds.
State coroner Michael Barnes will conduct the inquest in the Wagga courthouse between October 6 and October 9, it was announced on Monday.
The violent deaths of the popular Hunt family shocked Australia, but they devastated the Riverina, particularly the close-knit Lockhart and Boree Creek communities which knew the family well.
They were described as a really beautiful family by Urana mayor Patrick Bourke as the region came to grips with the tragedy.
Mrs Hunt was a popular nurse at Wagga Base Hospital and the Lockhart Multi Purpose Service.
Her miracle recovery from a near fatal car crash on the Boree Creek road in July, 2012, and the devotion of Mr Hunt to his wife made front page news in The Daily Advertiser.
The impact of that medical crisis on the Hunt family may be one of the issues explored by the state coroner.
Mr Hunt was a third-generation mixed crop farmer on the property Watch Hill, about 13 kilometres from Lockhart on the Boree Creek Road.
Fletcher was in Year Four at St Joseph’s Primary School at Lockhart, while Mia was in year Two and Phoebe was in kindergarten at the same school.
