Three men met police at the farmhouse, an ordinary brown brick-and-tile home. And inside the home there were three more people - all dead.
The victims were Adeline Yvette Rigney-Wilson, 29, and two small children, a boy, 5, and a girl, 6.
The injured man is Steven Peet, her 30-year-old partner. After a brief trip to hospital he was taken to a police station and charged with three counts of murder.
But police won't say who the other two men were at the house, other than to say they were assisting police with their inquiries.
The modest home in Hillier, Gawler, which is north of Adelaide, is now a crime scene, crawling with police and forensic teams.
They paid special attention to two parked cars parked outside the home which were surrounded by police markers.
The property was being lit up last night by flashes of officers taking pictures inside and out.
"I can't make any comment about the method of the deaths that have occurred. I won't do that," Chief Inspector Alby Quinn said.It's believed the bodies of the victims are still inside. How they died though remains a mystery - police refuse to say what "the manner" of death was.
But the nature of the crime was traumatic, Inspector Quinn said.
Mr Quinn said police were not searching for anyone else in connection with the deaths.
"This does appear to be domestic-related and we are not looking for any other further persons in relation to this incident," he told reporters.
"This does appear to be domestic-related and we are not looking for any other further persons in relation to this incident," he told reporters.
Earlier this year Peet shared a post on Facebook that read: "The day you raise your hand to a woman. That day you're officially not a man!"
A man named Sam, who walked from the crime scene area after talking to police, found the bodies.
He said he was an acquaintance of Peet having bought a car from him. "It's not good to find two dead kids," he told The Advertiser.
Another man who arrived at the death scene said he had been at the property on Friday to carry out some work. The man, a security door contractor, wouldn't say why.
The Nine Network reported this morning police had been called to the house before.
Adeline's mother Donna Rigney had not spoken with her daughter for about four months because of the 29-year-old's drug issues but says she would do anything for her kids.
"She was a good mother. She growled, but it doesn't matter because you've got to pull your kids into line and that's how she did it," Ms Rigney said through tears.
"She got mixed up with the wrong crowd but she always made sure her children were right.
"She always bought food for those kids on her payday."
Ms Rigney said she didn't know her daughter's partner.
"The devil will look after his own," she said.
Police haven't revealed how the woman and children died.
Ms Rigney-Wilson's sister described her and her children as "beautiful".
"She was a strong black woman," she said of her sibling.
She revealed Ms Rigney-Wilson had only lived with Peet - in the home she was killed - for six weeks.
One neighbour told The Advertisershe hadn't even noticed they'd moved in.
"I've never seen them before, hadn't seen anything or heard anything from over there," she said.
"I'd never even noticed that they were there, we'd never had any bother from them at all, they were very quiet."
Another couldn't believe a triple murder had shattered the calm of their quiet neighbourhood.
"It just makes me feel so upset, especially that something like this could happen so close to where I live," she said.
"It makes me wonder what the world is coming to, who would harm children like that?"
