Widow 'disregarded' as she fights for answers over FIFO husband's death

A Perth widow is engaged in a difficult battle for answers following the death of her husband, Laurence Harbeck, who took his own life in November 2024 while working on the Ichthys LNG plant off Western Australia's coast. Danielle Hadida, his wife of eight months, alleges she was not notified of his death for 14 hours and has been systematically denied access to the subsequent investigation into the circumstances surrounding his passing.

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I wasn't told until 9.30pm when two police officers showed up at my house and they told me that Laurence had died.

Harbeck, a 34-year-old process control engineer, was found in his room by a cleaner at 7:30 AM on what was supposed to be the last day of his 15-day FIFO (fly-in, fly-out) swing. Hadida, a senior associate in family law, has spent the past 19 months attempting to reconstruct the events leading to his death, facing significant obstacles.

She described her husband as intelligent, humorous, and kind, with no apparent signs of mental illness. While he had mentioned experiencing sleep difficulties due to work-related stress and feeling pressured by his workload, Hadida stated their marriage was strong, and they faced no other life stressors, financial or otherwise. She expressed profound guilt over not being informed sooner, as she was listed as his emergency contact.

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I'm Laurie's emergency contact at work, no one called me, and I carry tremendous guilt.

The National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) has confirmed completing its investigation. However, Hadida has been informed that she will not receive a copy of the report and must file a Freedom of Information request to access it. She is determined to see the regulator's findings, seeking clarity and accountability for her husband's death.

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He'd been under a lot of pressure for quite a few months. He was doing too much work and I know that he'd talked about it to his bosses.