The Tromp family case was something that always fascinated me and left me with a lot of questions on what happened to all of them to go absolutely insane in one road trip, and it's more weird considering that all of the family members are alive (as far as I know, because the case is from 2016). This is a wealthy family we're talking about, it's important to keep that in mind.
One morning of August, the father comes home and in one fell swoop, tells the entire family that they need to get out of the house and flee far away, no reasons given, they just had to flee from the house as fast as possible heading to the north side of Australia. He and his wife Jacoba, with his two daughters and son fled the place. The police, later called to the home to investigate, found passports, credit cards and mobile phones had been left behind. This was to be a cash-only, "off the grid" road trip, with no way of being followed.
It was later revealed Mark and Jacoba had been suffering increasing signs of stress and paranoia. According to media reports, at least one of them had become convinced someone was out to kill them, and take their money, probably Mark. The only phone who was not discarded was the phone of the son, who had it in secret during the trip, and when the father found out about this, some 30km away from home, they made him throw his phone out of the car window. They were apparently convinced it was being used to track them.
And then he left his son in the road and the family continue the escape, he was later the first one to be found by the police, as he left the family when he couldn't tolerate his parents lunacy. Then later the sisters abandoned the parents, and they stole a car and drove south to a town called Goulbourn, to announce their parents disappearance. In Goulburn, Riana and Ella decided to part ways at a petrol station, with Ella saying she wanted to go home to feed her horses. She became the first Tromp to be located when she arrived back at the family farm on Tuesday night and found the police there. Mitchell would arrive home the following morning, having taken a series of trains.
Mitchell and Ella were probably the only ones who are currently mentally unaffected by the incident, but for Riana was a different story. Since she was later found in the back of a utility vehicle, the male driver found her after a one hour trip, the most strange thing about it is that he found her in a catatonic state, saying that she didn't remembered her name or where she was. She was put into a mental ward after the incident. Ella was charged for car theft.
Mark and Jacoba drove back toward Melbourne from the Jenolan Caves. A day later on Wednesday, 600km south in the Victorian town of Wangaratta, they too became separated. Jacoba headed north again, by means which are still a mystery, and was found the next day 350km away in Yass, wandering in an agitated state. She was taken to a hospital there, and later moved to Goulburn to be with daughter Riana, as the pair continued mental health treatment. She was also in catatonic state and suffered psychological trauma, and it is said that she is in a worse mental state than her daughter.
The last member, the one who originated all of this chaos, Mark Tromp, was found near an airport, probably with the intention of escaping the country, flipping off the photographers who appeared in the scene when he was taken away by the police.
After all of this incident, he later released a statement, making a public apology to all who got involved in the deranged road trip and also told the Australian media to leave the family alone. He gave absolutely zero explanations on why he drove the family away from home and try to flee the country.
During this trip, all of the family went insane with the exception of two, what happened to them during the trip? From who or what they were escaping from? The reasons might never be known.
