Rowan Baxter, 44, looked like the perfect husband and father to anyone on the outside.
The former New Zealand rugby player and his wife, 31-year-old fitness trainer Hannah Clarke, appeared to have built a picture-perfect life together.
But behind closed doors, their marriage was consumed by abuse, fear, and control.
For 11 years, Hannah endured Rowan’s physical and emotional torment. It wasn’t until their daughter Aaliyah, just six years old, stood up to him that Hannah finally decided to break free.
Sadly, her attempt to escape would end in tragedy.
The darkness begins
Hannah Clarke was only 19 when she met Rowan in 2008.
He was more than a decade older — and still living with his first wife. Although Rowan told Hannah they were separated, that was a lie. The couple married in 2012, while Hannah was pregnant with their first child, and later opened a gym together. When the business struggled, Hannah’s parents had to step in financially.
As time went on, Rowan’s behavior followed the familiar cycle of coercive control.
He dictated what Hannah wore, punished her for jokes at work, and isolated her from friends and family. Rowan’s control over Hannah extended to nearly every aspect of her life. According to Hannah’s parents, he would refer to women as “fat pigs” and even banned his wife from wearing shorts or the color pink.
On social media, though, Hannah painted a very different picture. For their fourth anniversary in 2016, she called Rowan her “best friend” and hashtagged the post “true love.” He replied by describing her as his “partner in crime.”
Behind the smile
Behind the smiles, Rowan demanded sex constantly, giving Hannah the silent treatment for days if she ever refused. Friends said he often spoke to her harshly.
Hannah’s best friend, Nicole Brooks, told an inquest that Baxter once choked his wife and warned her, “You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
Brooks also said Baxter was “abnormally rough” with the children and recalled a Facebook post he shared showing them being placed in an ice bath, with his two-year-old Trey “screaming hysterically.”
“Rowan held him … right up to his neck in there. And Trey was frantic. His eyes were bulging in his head with fear,” Brooks told the inquest.
“And he thought that was funny enough to post.”
The impact on their children — Aaliyah, six, Laianah, four, and Trey, three — convinced Hannah she had to leave.
Aaliyah’s Courage
Aaliyah, born in 2013, was the only one in the household who dared to challenge Rowan. A school friend’s mother, Varvara Meli, later described one incident that became a turning point.
When Rowan came to collect Aaliyah from school, the little girl became upset and asked to use a phone to call her mom.
“She had opened up to my girls during the day that she wasn’t looking forward to the afternoon,” Varvara said. “I didn’t ask, I just gave her the phone.”
On the call, Aaliyah reassured Hannah she was okay.
But Hannah later admitted to a witness that Rowan was “horrible” to their daughter because she “stood up to him.”
With that, Hannah finally left Rowan. She and the children moved in with her parents, and she secured a protective order while staying in contact with police about his threats. Rowan, however, refused to give up control.
The day of the attack
On February 19, 2020, Hannah began the morning with coffee and conversation with her mother, while her daughters played and her son watched TV. After her mom left for work, Hannah loaded the children into the car.
That’s when Rowan ambushed her, climbing into the passenger seat with a petrol can.
She screamed at him to get out, but he doused her in fuel. Terrified, Hannah pulled the car over near a neighbor who was washing his vehicle. “Call the police, he’s going to kill me. He’s poured petrol on me,” she cried out.
Within seconds, the car exploded into flames. The neighbor tried to help, burning his face in the attempt. Hannah, engulfed in fire, managed to escape the vehicle —but her three children were trapped inside.
Witnesses desperately called emergency services as Rowan also got out of the burning car. Hannah, in unimaginable pain, told those around her exactly what had happened and begged them to save her children. No one could reach them.
Rowan then pulled out a knife and stabbed himself.
Even while suffering burns across her body, Hannah’s concern never shifted away from her kids. “I hope he survives and rots in jail for the rest of his life,” she told a paramedic who was treating her. Moments later, she was pleading, “My babies are in the car, my children are in the car. Why didn’t I just stay in the car with them?”
Devastating aftermath
Hannah died in hospital later that afternoon, at 5:30 pm.
When firefighters finally extinguished the blaze more than an hour after the attack, Aaliyah, Laianah, and Trey’s remains were discovered in the back seat.
The inquest concluded that “they had sustained injuries that were clearly incompatible with life” and that “they had been burnt so badly that they could not be visually identified.”
Rowan also died at the scene, despite extraordinary efforts by emergency workers. Police determined his actions were “premeditated and the result of his inability to accept his loss of control over Hannah.”
It’s no surprise that this horrific case shook Australia to its core. Hannah Clarke and her children were laid to rest on March 9, 2020, in a joint funeral attended by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, Clarke’s family established the foundation Small Steps 4 Hannah in memory of the slain children. The charity’s mission is to “put a HALT to the incidences and severity of domestic and family violence in Australia.”
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
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