Body in suitcase sickens ambo

By John Lyons

IT was the way the little boy's body had been packed for death that most disturbed Mario Burzynski, an ambulance officer for 10 years.  In that decade, Mr Burzynski had seen many confronting things but what most affected him this time was the strangely deliberate way this boy had been packed in a suitcase. The child's legs had been folded back to fit into the suitcase and his naked body had been wrapped in plastic. "A kid who had drowned and floated would be a tragedy," Mr Burzynski said yesterday. "But this was very intentional. "This child had been compacted in to fit the space."

One thing locals in Ambarvale, southwestern Sydney, now realise is that in their midst has been - and possibly still is - an extremely sick, psychotic person. One mother, Kelly Martin, who went to view the crime scene yesterday, said: "I went to bed last night and got up three times to check that the doors were locked." This was an area already living with a level of anxiety.

Alert out on van for months

Local schools in recent months had alerted parents to beware of a man driving around in a white van with dog paw-print stickers on the back window who had been following children to and from school.

In an area of high unemployment, drug use and domestic violence, this duck pond provides a little sea of serenity. Ben Gallagher often brings his two young children here. "It's putrid," he says of much of the neighbourhood. "The area is full of drugs and drug dealers. "This lake is the place where you come to relax and feed the ducks." But as of 4.30pm on Wednesday, even the lake had lost some of its appeal, and the area's anxieties turned into real fears.
"After this I want them to empty the lake out," said Jay, the father of Jayden Atherton, the boy who discovered the body.

On Wednesday, Jayden and two other boys who had been hanging around the duck pond reached for sticks to drag a suitcase they'd seen floating to the side of the shore. 
Having succeeded, they unzipped the case, but nobody was prepared for what came next - the boys let out a scream that one of the neighbours down the road heard.

Maz Humphry was that neighbour. She'd already been nervous about children playing around the lake following a high alert that had been given to local schools about a man in a white van following children home from school.
The scream on Wednesday sent a chill through her.

'We found a dead baby'

At first, the boys thought it was a pig's body, but on closer inspection, Jayden and his two friends realised it was a child, now believed to be between four and eight.
They ran for the nearest house, over the road, and found Sarah Burzynski and her father, Mario. "We found a dead baby," they shouted to Sarah through the security door. "Please come!"
Those were the first moments of the discovery of one of the most gruesome crimes for some time.
An extraordinary aspect of this murder is that no one has come forward to report a boy missing - suggesting the possibility of a parent being involved.

The body had been in the pond for about three days, and was beginning to decompose.
If you didn't know of the death, this would appear an idyllic setting similar to those found in suburbs around Australia.
But the ghost of this boy is already beginning to haunt those who live around the lake in Ambarvale, near Campbelltown.

Horror just beginning

The horror of this story is, in some ways, only just beginning. There is obviously a terrible story of depravity in who killed and packed the boy.  And there is its effect on the lives of others touched by it.

Sarah Burzynski, who opened the door to the three boys, had counselling yesterday and begins her HSC today.  Jayden Atherton, the 12-year-old who found the body, begins his first counselling session today.  His father, Jay, says that when his son came home after seeing the body, "he was wide-eyed and in shock" and had walked around the back yard for 10 minutes.
Jayden's mother, Jane Atherton, said: "Jayden seems to be okay - I think I'm handling it worse than he is."  One of the eerie aspects of yesterday's scene was the crowds who came to watch.

Crowds cause traffic jam

At one point, there was a traffic jam as everyone tried to get a look. Perhaps most disturbing of all was the thought that the person who would do this sort of thing may well return to the scene to check it out.  As mothers watched, they spoke openly of how they now won't let their children out of their sights.
One, Sue Bains, said: "If my kid goes missing for five minutes or his bus is late, I'm jumping up and down."  Another mother, Kelly Martin, spoke for everyone in the group when she made a reference to the boy in the suitcase: "Imagine the fear in that little boy's face."