HEALTH - A mentally disturbed Australian man pulled over on a highway bridge, took his 4-year-old daughter out of the car and dropped her over the side to her death at 9 AM today in Australia's second-largest city.
Arthur Freeman, 36, of Melbourne was later charged with the murder of 4-year-old Darcey Freeman, but he did not appear in court because police said he was psychologically unfit to do so. He is to be held in custody while an investigation continues. He faces a maximum life sentence if convicted.
The motive is unknown, but the man appeared to be suffering from a mental breakdown due to a divorce/custody battle with his wife over the couple's three children.
The two other children, boys aged 6 and 8, were in Freeman's SUV when he pulled over on the West Gate Bridge in morning peak-hour traffic and dropped the girl 58 metres into the Yarra River.
Stunned witnesses called police, who were able to pull the girl from the river within 10 minutes of receiving the alert. She was barely alive when she was pulled out and later died in Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital four hours after the fall.
About an hour later, Freeman was arrested with the two surviving children outside the family court.
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