UPDATE – Monday (from the Bendigo Advertiser):
THE sister of a woman who was shot in the neck by her ex-husband says her sister was a kind, innocent woman who did not deserve what happened to her.
Sonia Gray was shot in her Kerang home on Saturday by former partner Greg Murray.
Following the attack, Mr Murray fled the scene and shot his current partner and himself in their Murrabit West home.
Their bodies were found by police early Sunday morning.
“He shot his ex-wife, he shot his current partner to death and all those children in the house could have been shot too,” Ms Gray’s sister said.
“The blame shouldn’t be on Sonia.
“His partner (who was killed) was innocent and had children of her own – what about them? And what about the children who were home at the time of the shooting?”
Inspector Jamie Templeton said Mr Murray had no criminal record, no intervention orders and no gun licence.
“There was no history or signs of violence,” he said.
“We couldn’t possibly see anything coming. This is a horrific crime, and traumatic for all involved. It’s a terrible set of circumstances.”
Mr Murray went armed with a shotgun he took from a relative to the home of Mrs Gray in Kerang at 11.30pm on Saturday, police said. The couple had split up about six years ago and the woman, 42, was living with her new husband, David, a local butcher aged 47, in Lloyd Street.
There were six children inside the house at the time – three to the dairy farmer and his former partner, two from his former partner and her new husband and a friend of one of the children.
Mrs Gray was shot in the hand and neck before Mr Gray and a neighbour wrestled the gun off Mr Murray.
Police said Mr Murray fled after the struggle, taking a second gun with him to his property 30 kilometres away in Salau Road, Murrabit West.
He dumped his car and walked a kilometre to his house.
When police arrived at 4.20am, they found his 41-year-old partner, from nearby Pental Island, dead inside and Mr Murray’s body inside another car parked in the carport. It is unclear whether Murray killed his partner before travelling to Kerang.
Mr and Ms Gray were hospitalised.
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UPDATE – Sunday 4pm: Police have confirmed six children were at a Kerang house at the time of a shooting on Saturday night.
A man, aged in his 40s, shot his ex-wife, 40, in the neck and hand at her Lloyd Street home in Kerang.
Her husband, 47, wrestled the gunman and was able to disarm him, but was shot in the shoulder.
Police later found two bodies, believed to be the gunman and his current partner, at a Murrabit West property.
Inspector Jamie Templeton told ABC radio the children may have witnessed the shootings in Kerang.
“The whole situation was extremely nasty,” Inspector Templeton said.
“It’s a horrible situation, traumatic for all parties and I understand there were children that may have been present at the home in Kerang that may have witnessed the struggle and the shotgun blast.”
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EARLIER: POLICE are investigating a suspected murder-suicide after finding a man and woman dead at a Murrabit West property this morning.
Detectives made the grisly discovery as part of their investigation into another shooting in Kerang last night that also saw two people injured.
Investigators believe a man broke into a house in Lloyd St, Kerang, about 11.30pm and fired a shotgun, injuring a woman inside the house.
The 40-year-old woman suffered injuries to her hand and neck and was flown to hospital in Melbourne.
A man, 47, wrestled the gun off the attacker but suffered a gunshot wound to the shoulder.
The gunman fled and the male victim was taken to a local hospital.
Detectives went to an address in Salau Road, Murrabit West, at 4.30am as part of the investigation into the shooting and found the bodies of a man in his 40s and a woman.
Investigators said they were not looking for any other person in relation to the shootings.
