[1] He eventually confessed to the murders and was sentenced in 2005 to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment,[1][2] with a non-parole period of thirty-three years.

[2] In 2003, Sharpe purchased a high-powered speargun and an additional spear at Sport Philip Marine, a local shop in Mornington.

[2] Some time after his wife's death, Sharpe returned to Sport Phillip Marine with his daughter and purchased another spear that would later be used to kill the child.

On 27 March 2004, Sharpe put his daughter Gracie to bed in her cot and then drank several glasses of whiskey and Coke in order to "numb his senses," he later said.

He retrieved the speargun from the garage, loaded it with the newly acquired spear, and fired at his daughter's head, penetrating her skull.

With his child wounded and screaming loudly, Sharpe retrieved the two spear shafts which he had earlier removed from his wife's head and returned to the bedroom.

[2] On 29 March 2004, Sharpe visited a local Bunnings Warehouse hardware store in Frankston, where he purchased a roll of duct tape, two tarpaulins, and an electric chainsaw.

Rather than comfort the family, Sharpe's e-mail raised further concerns, and Kemp's mother reported her disappearance to police in Dunedin.

Sharpe told police that Kemp had moved to the nearby Melbourne suburb of Chelsea with their daughter, and denied any knowledge of or involvement in her disappearance.

[2] During May 2004, Sharpe gave several media interviews, appearing on national television to speak of his wife and child's disappearance.

Sharpe also used Kemp's phone and ATM card on several occasions throughout the southeastern suburbs of Victoria to create the impression she was alive and well.

Police kept Sharpe under surveillance and witnessed him retrieving Kemp's phone and ATM cards from a hiding place at a public bathroom in Mornington, as well as dumping potential evidence in a bin in Mount Martha.

[10] Police undertook an extensive search lasting three weeks of the Mornington landfill site, and eventually recovered both bodies.

On 5 August 2005, the Court sentenced Sharpe to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 33 years.

[2] The stages of the Sharpe case were all major news items in the Australian print and television media of the time.