Melissa Little on the harrowing aftermath of learning her husband killed her sons.

Melissa Little, whose husband Damien killed her two sons in a murder-suicide in Port Lincoln, has written about the harrowing immediate aftermath of her children’s deaths.

“After the horrific event I remember asking myself over and over again: ‘WHY?’, but that proved even more traumatic because the truth was I would never get an answer to my question,” Ms Little wrote in a piece for New Idea.

“I will never understand why and I will never accept what has happened. Even having a mental illness does not excuse this behaviour. It has taken a lot of strength and resilience to learn how to survive and live with the hurt of missing my precious little boys each and every day.”

In January 2016, Damien Little shot his two children before driving them in his Ford station wagon off Port Lincoln’s wharf into Boston Bay. All three died.

“I would have never thought I would lose a child, let alone both children,’ Ms Little wrote for New Idea.

“It’s sad enough that people have to suffer these dreadful illnesses, but what is even sadder and unthinkable is when kids have to suffer,” Ms Little said.

It was this that sparked her idea to write a children’s book about grief called Yesterday You Were Here.

In 2016, Damien Little’s parents told The Advertiser they tried to encourage their son to seek help after he “spiralled into a dark space”.

“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.”

Of Melissa, the couple said she is “a wonderful lady and [was] a wonderful wife to him”.

You can read Melissa Little’s full piece for New Idea here.

If you or anyone you know is struggling, call Lifeline on 13 14 11.