‘Lack of curiosity’ about family’s religious beliefs was ‘missed opportunity’ to save eight-year-old, inquest hears
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The coroner investigating the death of Elizabeth Struhs is considering adopting recommendations from Victoria’s cults inquiry, warning a “lack of curiosity” about her family’s religious beliefs was a “missed opportunity”.
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Elizabeth, an eight-year-old, died on 7 January 2022 of diabetic ketoacidosis after her father ceased providing insulin to treat type 1 diabetes.
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The rest of her family and other members of a religious sect known as the “saints” subscribed to an extreme form of Christianity and didn’t believe in seeking medical treatment for illnesses. They sat around singing and praying for her resurrection after her death.
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The young girl came to the attention of multiple government departments after a 2019 hospitalisation for diabetic ketoacidosis. She was extremely unwell because her parents delayed seeking medical help for her, and were both convicted of child neglect.
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Coroner Ainslie Kirkegaard is sitting for the seventh day of an inquest into Elizabeth’s death.
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Kirkegaard has previously heard that Elizabeth’s mother, Kerrie Struhs, had repeatedly told police, healthcare workers, teachers, parole officers and child safety workers about her views and that she would do the same thing again.
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They were also discussed at a formal interagency case management meeting by the suspected child abuse and neglect team.
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But the coroner said none of them seemed curious about Kerrie’s “really quite extraordinary beliefs”.
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“What’s striking in the evidence that’s available to me, is an acceptance of this mother’s beliefs without any curiosity about why she held them,” she said.
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“And the missed opportunity that flows from that lack of curiosity to have identified the broader influences for the children within this family.” Kirkegaard has asked several witnesses about their level of curiosity about Kerrie’s beliefs.
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Many have said they weren’t curious at all, or they were only curious about the degree to which they created a risk to her daughter, not their origins. One child safety officer who said she was curious told the court: “I don’t recall doing anything specific” in response to her interest.
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She conceded it was a missed opportunity to protect Elizabeth.
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Kerrie’s church group was ultimately deemed a source of support for her by child safety.
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All 14 adult members of the Saints were convicted of Elizabeth’s manslaughter last year.
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On Tuesday, Kirkegaard heard from three senior figures in the Queensland police, Queensland Department of Education and the health department.
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The coroner has asked all of them about Victoria’s inquiry into the recruitment methods and impacts of cults and organised fringe groups, in an apparent effort to gauge whether similar recommendations might be appropriate in response to the death of Elizabeth.
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Victoria’s inquiry recommended creating a new offence akin to the domestic violence offence of coercive control to apply in the context of an organised group, such as a cult, among others.
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A senior police officer told her that Victoria’s findings would be relevant to Queensland but could not be automatically adopted without an assessment of Queensland’s law.
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“A key concern has to be religious friends and making sure that we’re not targeting religious groups based on their ideologies,” he said.
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He told the coroner that it was a “complex area” to define.
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“We have parents who believe in traditional medicine and they want to use alternative medicine.
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When does that pose a risk to a child that reaches a threshold for statutory investigation?” Queensland police have only recently created a reporting mechanism or crime class reflecting cult-related offending, he said, but created one in June 2026 identifying “ideology of concern”. “The flag was created to expand upon the existing ‘sovereign citizen’ flag within QPrime to identify persons displaying other types of ideologies of concern including religious, racist and anti-government ideologies,” the officer told the court.
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No witnesses can be identified for legal reasons.
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