Saturday, July 19, 2014

Melbourne family of five killed on MH17 - Herald Sun




Hans van den Hende with wife Shaliza Dewa and children Piers, 15, Marnix, 12, and Margaux


Hans van den Hende with wife Shaliza Dewa and children Piers, 15, Marnix, 12, and Margaux, 8, who perished on flight MH17. Source: Supplied






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Tony Abbott has warned that it may be weeks before the bodies of MH17 victims are returned to Australia.








A MELBOURNE family of five who were travelling on Dutch and Malaysian passports were among those lost on MH17.



It comes as the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that eight permanent residents, all from Victoria were among those who perished.


The total number of Victorian killed in the crash is now 18.


Hans van den Hende, his wife, Shaliza Dewa, and their boys, Piers, 15, and Marnix, 12, and daughter Margaux, 8, were on the tragic flight.


The family lived in Eynesbury, a tight-knit community in a new estate 40km west of Melbourne.


The children all attended Bacchus Marsh Grammar School but would travel with other local children on the 20-minute daily bus ride.


And it has also emerged that Ms Dewa was a boarder at an inner Melbourne private school as a teenager.


Her friends from Cato College said this afternoon they were devastated.


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A spokesperson from the Prime Minister’s Office has confirmed that these that all of the permanent residents who have now been identified were from Victoria.


The victims are in addition to the 28 Australian citizens killed.


“The families of the Australian victims have requested privacy and out of respect for their wishes, the Australian Government will not be releasing the names of victims,’’ a spokesman for the Prime Minister said last night.


The family’s local community will gather at 4pm on Sunday at the Eynesbury Homestead to remember them.


A community member, who asked not to be named, confirmed that the family was on the flight.


“We’re all a bit numb at the moment,” she said.


“At 4pm tomorrow we’re going to have an opportunity for Eynesbury residents to lay a wreath.


“Everyone wanted to pay their respects to the family and lay a wreath and we’re also going to have white candles.”



The van den Hende family were among those killed on MH17.


The van den Hende family were among those killed on MH17. Source: Supplied



Piers played soccer, his younger brother, Marnix, was a swimmer who would get up at 4am for training and little Margaux was involved in a local dancing club.


A friend who met the family when they arrived from Kuala Lumpur more than seven years ago said she was devastated.


“My kids have gone to school with them for their whole journey,” she said.


“There was a whole family but now they have just disappeared out of the community.


“I went over to the house this morning, I don’t know why, no-one was going to be there.”


The friend said that the children’s schoolmates were struggling to cope.


It has also emerged that Ms Dewa’s links with Melbourne date back more than two decades.


She attended the all girls’ school Cato College in Elsternwick as a teenager.


Ms Dewa boarded at the school, which is now a Wesley College campus, and was still close to her classmates.


They continued to catch up even after school finished.


“There were quite a large group of us who all kept in touch,” a school friend said.


“We were following there holiday in the Netherlands on Facebook, they were so happy.”


The friend said the Cato College group was at a loss.


“It’s horrible to think that we won’t ever see them again,” she said.


“All of us are completely devastated, it’s unthinkable.”


New details have also emerged of how Ms Dewa and her husband Dutch husband met.


The pair were studying together at Sussex University in England.


They fell in love and ended up having two wedding celebrations because there families were in separate parts of the world.


“They were a gorgeous couple,” the friend said.




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US President Barack Obama has sent his condolences to families of Australian victims of the MH17 disaster.






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