Phoebe Jonchuck was killed by her father John. Picture: Supplied

Police Sergeant William Vickers was driving to his Florida home around midnight when he saw a PT Cruiser speeding past him.

He followed the car, radioing in as it slowed on the Dick Misener Bridge over Tampa Bay. A man in pyjamas climbed out, clutching a big black book.

“Get back in the car!” shouted Sgt Vickers.

“You have no free will!” the man called back, walking back to his car and leaning in the back door.

“Show me your hands!” yelled the officer.

The man ignored him, plucked a little girl out of the vehicle, walked to the rail — and let her go. Vickers heard a distant scream, then a splash.

“When I saw him discard Phoebe in the water, my immediate thought was, ‘please let me see her in the water’,” he said in a shaky televised interview later. “I didn’t see her.”

He knew that if he dived in too, the rescue team would be retrieving two bodies. After they fished her out, he desperately attempted CPR. It was too late.

Phoebe hated cold water, her mother said.

The case has chilling echoes of that of Darcey Freeman, whose dad Arthur threw her off Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge in January 2009, and similarities with several recent distressing cases in which parents have killed their children.

In last week’s Port Lincoln tragedy, Damien Little drove his sons Koda, four, and Hunter, nine months, off the South Australian wharf. All three were found with gunshot wounds.

This week, two-month-old Qiangian “Queenie” Xu was allegedly stabbed to death by her apparently crazed grandfather in the family’s Brisbane home.

These stories are why Phoebe’s tale is important. Grief over her death changed the system in Florida, and may provide answers about what needs to be done to stop the horror in Australia.

The now-26-year-old father was well known to police and mental health agencies. Picture: APSource:AP

John Jonchuck had a history of domestic violence, drug abuse and paranoid delusions. Picture: AP Photo/The Tampa Bay TimesSource:AP

WHAT PHOEBE DID

John Jonchuck, now 26, was well known to the police, mental health organisations and the local child protection agency. He was a meth addict who had been repeatedly arrested for battery and domestic violence against his wife and mother, and had been sectioned by his family 27 times, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

In the days leading up to Phoebe’s death, he had been experiencing paranoid delusions, rambling about the Bible and sacrifice to friends, family and co-workers. His lawyer called the police and the Florida Department of Children and Families after he kept insisting she was God. His daughter hadn’t been to kindergarten in days.

But in the report into the little girl’s death, the DCF said: “There was nothing in the preceding several years that could have reasonably been interpreted as predictive of such an event.”

A year on, things are different. From January to August, the department recorded 917 calls that met the criteria for “inadequate supervision,” The St Petersburg Tribune reported. It introduced protocols that mean complaints about caregivers believed to be experiencing psychotic episodes trigger a response within four hours.

Policymakers gave the DCF money for 270 more child protective investigators and “critical incident rapid response teams”, which have a child protection team medical director.

Jonchuck is now in a mental hospital and has twice been declared mentally incompetent to face trial, with another hearing due on February 23.

It took cherubic Phoebe’s tragedy to create change.

Damien, pictured with Koda, Melissa, and Hunter Little, has been described as a loving father who struggled with mental health issues.Source:AAP

WHY IT MATTERS

Damien Little may not have been as troubled as Jonchuck, but reports say he didn’t seek treatment for mental health problems he had battled over the past few years. His mother Sue Little told The Adelaide Advertiser: “Over the past three years he had a bit of a problem, we had noticed a change. When we saw (it) the whole family tried to help him. He had a lot of people offering help. We tried to help him, we all did. But you can’t help somebody who can’t help himself.”

In the wake of the tragedy, Julia Trinne, whose son Luca was killed by his mentally ill father David Janzow in July 2014, urged people who knew someone suffering from psychological difficulties to support and talk to them. “How about spending time exploring how and why these parents got to this point and what can be done to reduce the alarming number of similar cases,” she wrote on Facebook.

“Entire family support is needed, as is the awareness, support, and understanding from the wider community.”

Rosie Batty has become one of the country’s most effective campaigners on family violence after her 11-year-old son Luke was killed by his mentally unstable father Greg Anderson, bringing important issues into the open. There is still much more that could be done.

Rosie Battie has been a prominent domestic violence campaigner since her son was murdered by his father.Source:News Corp Australia

Baby Qianqian “Queenie” Xu was stabbed to death by her grandfather in Brisbane.Source:News Corp Australia

“There are blind spots in the system, particularly when it comes to the mental health of parents, domestic violence and drug and alcohol abuse,” Dr Joe Tucci, CEO of the Australian Childhood Foundation, told news.com.au. “Early signs of stress in families can escalate quickly and cause children harm and even death.

“The system orients itself to severe cases, where the child has bruises or has made a disclosure of abuse. It’s not sensitive enough to discern a group of risk factors in a family that might not present a problem today but need intervention to prevent problems in the future.

“Collaboration of different services is an issue that keeps coming up. Services only see a slice of the problem they’re attending to ... often those jigsaw pieces aren’t put together. Part of the problem in the child protection system is it’s too slow and it’s not co-ordinated enough. It does need special teams.

“If abuse continues it has lifetime consequences for a child. We need to be prepared to intervene at different levels to keep a child safe.”

It took Phoebe’s tragedy for Florida to make changes to save other children. Koda and Hunter Little could leave the same legacy.

If you or someone you know need support, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

emma.reynolds@news.com.au /