HEROIN: HOW WE ALL PAY

POLICE are hunting a triple killer after a family was found shot dead
in an execution-style murder.

The bodies of Barbara Anne Brooks, 34, and son Stacie Willoughby, 13,
were found in a car in remote forest on the Victoria-New South Wales
border.

Mrs Brooks had been shot in the face at close range. Her son's body
was found in the boot of the family car.

Husband Steven Brooks, 38, formerly of Frankston, was originally
suspected of being the killer - until police found his body 500m from
the car in scrub on Sunday.

He had been shot in the head and had extensive gunshot wounds to his
feet and the backs of his legs. NSW police have set up a taskforce to
hunt the killer.

A Herald Sun investigation has learned mother and son may have died
because they joined Brooks in a final, fatal crime.

Barbara Brooks was at her Deniliquin home, in southern NSW, with
Stacie last Tuesday when her husband telephoned about midnight.

Hours later all three were dead. Their bodies were found in the
Millewa State Forest about 50km south-east of Deniliquin.

At 7pm on the day all three disappeared, Mrs Brooks left Stacie and
his stepsisters Carissa, 9, and Mikarla, 6, to drop her husband at an
undisclosed address.

She refused to tell her family what was happening but they suspected
it was not legal as they watched Mr Brooks change from his "good"
shorts and T-shirt into green overalls and boots.

She returned about half an hour later and was expecting a midnight
call.

According to her mother, Gladys Willoughby, when the call came her
daughter exclaimed: "I'm not going, I'm not going."

But Stacie said: "You have to. Dad wants to come home."

They left in a yellow Ford sedan and were not seen alive
again.

Their bodies were found last Thursday by a man passing through the
river red gum forest.

Three days later, NSW detectives from the hastily formed Strike Force
Rodi found Brooks' body nearby in dense scrub.

"These figures show heroin is a society-wide problem which affects
everyone," Mr Thwaites said.

He said the government was committed to a wide-ranging strategy to
tackle the issue and would plough an extra $20 million a year into
fighting heroin addiction.

Salvation Army spokesman John Dalziel said battling families could not
afford to have such large sums of money sucked from their incomes.

"These people have to watch every dollar," he said.

"$300 is a very significant amount for them."

Mr Dalziel said many of the struggling households were more prone to
be hit by burglaries and robberies, many of them motivated by addicts'
need for heroin money.

Despite the massive cost of the state's heroin problem, figures from
the Penington report state that less than $5million is spent on drug
education.

Drug law reform proponents said yesterday this was a major argument
for Victoria to adopt heroin trials and remove the need for addicts to
commit crime.

Fitzroy Legal Service spokeswoman Pauline Spencer said she was not
surprised the state was spending so much on the heroin problem.

Ms Spencer said people had been "churned" through the courts for too
long, with little money devoted to stopping them reaching that point.

"The war on drugs has failed. If it was a social justice program
consuming this much money and not working, it would have been cut long
ago," she said.

Although the figures indicate an average annual expense of $100,000
for each addict, some are known to annually steal property with a
total value running into six figures.

In 1998, the Herald Sun revealed how one user, Brian Robert Smith, of
Yarraville, stole $1million worth of property each year to feed his
raging habit.

Last year's heroin toll was 359.