Police in the Australian state of Queensland faced swift backlash from domestic violence advocates when they said on Thursday that they would keep an “open mind” about the motives of a man who killed his wife and three children by setting them on fire. Rowan Baxter, 42, reportedly had a history of domestic violence, but police said they would consider suggestions that he had been “driven too far.” Hannah Clarke, 31, died on Wednesday in a car that burst into flames on a suburban street in Brisbane. The incident also took the lives of her three children: Laianah, 4; Aaliyah, 6; and Trey, 3. The couple had reportedly separated before Christmas last year and Clarke’s parents said on Wednesday they had “exhausted themselves” trying to help her escape her abusive relationship with Baxter, whom they called a “monster.”

“We need to look at every piece of information and to put it bluntly there are probably people out there in the community that are deciding which side, so to speak, to take in this investigation,” Det. Insp. Mark Thompson said on Thursday. “Is this an issue of a woman suffering significant domestic violence, and her and her children perishing at the hands of the husband? Or is it an instance of a husband being driven too far by issues that he’s suffered by certain circumstances into committing acts of this form?” Renee Eaves, a domestic abuse victims’ advocate, said Thompson’s narrative “is the most dangerous thing that exists for victims who doubt themselves after an attack that maybe they were partly responsible.”