The mother of South Australian farmer Michael Burdon has spoken out about her son’s suicide, which took place days after the disappearance of his wife, Tanja Ebert.
23-year-old mother-of-two Tanja was last seen on August 8. Just eight days later, her husband, 41-year-old Michael Burdon, shot and killed himself at the family’s 410sq km Mannahill property.
Speaking to Seven News, Marlis Burdon questioned how her son was able to access a gun and firearms while detectives were at his property questioning him.
“He said he needed to go to the toilet,” Marlis recalled
“And he left, somehow managed to get a gun and ammunition, ran further away from the station and then somebody heard a muffled shot – we didn’t hear the shot.”
At the time, Marlis was inside the family’s homestead looking after her two grandchildren.
“The policeman came in and said, ‘sorry to have to tell you like this, but your son is dead’. That was the most horrible thing,” she recounted.
“How did he get access to anything?”
Marlis also told Today Tonight that if her son had killed Tanja, her body would be difficult to find.
“He knew the station, every stone on the station,” she said. “If Michael had hidden the body, nobody would find it.”
But she added: “I know there are crimes of passion where people feel so deeply they act in haste, I don’t think he was that kind of person, though he was very upset.”
The search resumed for German-born Tanja on August 30, with major crime detectives returning to Mannahill to continue the investigation.
Police are treating her disappearance as a murder investigation, The Australian reports. Michael remains the only suspect.
The young woman had travelled to Australia on a gap year at age 19, where she had met Michael, 18 years her senior. The couple lived on a farm, where they raised their two young children, aged 3 and 1.
Police are urging anyone with information about Tanja’s disappearance to come forward.
