He then drove them on to Ellenborough Falls, where he left the three gagged and bound before initially driving off towards Newcastle, New South Wales.
He enlisted the services of a tow truck after the vehicle became stuck, before heading off to hospital to have a self-inflicted wound sutured.
He crashed the car off the side of the road in the Swansea area of Newcastle, and once again enlisted the help of the same tow truck company.
The family heard nothing until they were on their way to church on Sunday morning; Paul Connell and his other children learned the bodies of Valda, Sally and Damien had been found in a car boot near Swansea.
Following widespread media coverage, a member of the public identified Cribb, who took a hostage at knifepoint when police arrived.
However, a letter Cribb had written to the court came to light, claiming he had not raped Valda at all, and that the murders had been "instigated" by her refusal to admit Sally was his daughter.
[3][4] The whole story is told in a 2008 episode of the "Crime Investigation Australia" series, titled "The Devil Inside - John Ernest Cribb.