The Torturous Drowning Murders of the Farquharson Boys

There is a common misconception that drowning is a painless and quick death.

This couldn't be further from the truth.

For nearly ten years of my thirty-six, I was a lifeguard. Drowning is not a quick nor a painless way to go. Especially when you're trapped inside a car while it slowly fills up.

Once you're under the water with no way of getting back up for air, you're considered drowned after twenty seconds-dead at two minutes. Try holding your breath for two minutes. A person who has not has extensive training, and most especially a child, can not do this.

When finally you can't hold your breath anymore your body automatically will inhale...you inhale water...you choke...try and breathe...breathe in water...you choke...

You become oxygen deprived, which leads to hallucinations, cardiac arrest and then death.

Did you hold your breath? Before you breathed in again, did you feel your body change? The automatic need to breathe and the pain your body begins to experience as it is denied the ability to breathe...

Imagine being a child...these kids were two, seven, and ten...trapped in a car that's filling up with water...you scream for Daddy to help you...why wouldn't he, right? He's Daddy. He's supposed to protect you.

But then he opens the door and leaves you in there. And as you watch him swim away and not come back by the time the water is too high...how scared are you? Knowing Daddy left you here to die. Trying with all your might to escape. To save your siblings. Knowing that you were going to die like this.

Robert and his wife, who had known each other as children, had split up in 2004 on supposedly good terms. After the separation he was struggling with depression and, seeking help, turning to a psychiatrist and getting prescribed both Zoloft and Avanza at different times.

On Father's Day, Robert Farquharson killed his three sons by driving his car into a small body of water located on a farm while on the way to drop the boys off back with their mother.

Once he hit the water, he did not grab his sons and attempt at getting them out of the car. He opened that car door, got out of it, and swam to safety. He flagged down a cab who drove him to a close by town called Winchelsea, declining two separate offers to call the fire department or emergency services.

Police divers found the bodies of the boys at two a.m. the next morning. The oldest (10) was found hanging half way out of the front door of the car, while the other boys were located in the back seat. All were unrestrained from their seat belts, but unable to escape, drowned.

Robert claimed that he passed out due to a coughing fit, which is what caused him to veer off the road into the water.

However, if you look at his path in the picture above, he clearly avoided several trees that were in his way to the body of water. That was some really good navigation by a man who was unconscious.

There were a total of 49 witnesses that appeared at his trial, including a friend of his that told the courts that Robert told him that he was going to kill the boys to get back at his wife. This revenge would be exacted when he "took away the things that mean the most to her".

During the trial, Robert relied heavily on the "coughing fit" defense, which obviously the jury didn't buy.

The fact that the owner of the property that he crashed into testified that in eight years about eight people have crashed through his fence off that part of the highway and his was the only car among them that ever reached the water, likely really helped the jury determine his guilt.

In the end Robert Farquharson was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of his three sons.

Which, if you ask me, is too light of a sentence.

They should hold him under water and let him feel how those babies felt in their last minutes...over and over and over again...before just leaving him under.