Article first published on New Idea.
Dad of boy drowned in tragic Murray River tragedy blasted for trying to raise money online
The father of the two young boys who’s mother allegedly tried to drown them in the Murray river has set up a GoFundMe page in the hope of raising money to visit his surviving son.
However, the man – who cannot be named for legal reasons and has admitted he never met the five-year-old and had not seen the nine-year-old boy for a number of years – has received huge backlash online from suspicious people questioning his motives for requesting such a large sum of money
Despite claiming that the $5000 he hoped to raise would go towards ‘getting me to my older son' and 'burying my little boy,’ online users were still skeptical about the Brisbane man’s motives.
You have not had anything to do with the boys from day one' one woman said.
'I wouldn't donate my toenail clippings to you,' another said.
'You didn't bother about ever seeing your son in the time he was alive and now you need $5,000 to go and say goodbye to him.'
'I'm confused as to why you're wanting to see them now after so many years? You said yourself ... that you have not even met your son but you're now asking for money to get down there,' one woman said.
'And why so much money?'
The five-year-old boy's body was discovered in the Murray River on Saturday.
Police divers pulled the body of the boy, who had been missing since Thursday afternoon, from the river Saturday morning.
His nine-year-old brother remains in a critical condition in a Melbourne hospital after his mother allegedly tried to drown him in the river near Moama in southern New South Wales.
She has been charged with the attempted murder of her nine-year-old son and is expected to face a murder charge now the five-year-old’s body has been found.