OPEN paddocks create no barrier for Ballarat's icy winds that sweep across Smarts Hill Road, where a couple and their dog were found dead in a car on Friday night.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The young homeless couple from Ballarat, were huddled in their white 1980's Holden Commodore station wagon for the night in an effort to keep warm, relying on a butane gas heater to deter the cold.
Rather than save them, the heater is believed to have contributed to their death.
Smarts Hill Road is a lonely, secluded patch of land in Cardigan, known by locals to be an illegal rubbish dumping hotspot littered with syringes, animal remains and car parts.
A once-loved teddy bear rests peacefully in the weeds.
After being called in by a concerned passer-by, police found the station wagon in sombre isolation near the intersection of Finches Road just before 9.30pm.
A time of death is still unclear.
