The doctor keeping allegedly murdered nurse’s final wish alive

Sometimes you come across a special kind of nurse. The one who always has a lolly jar. Who gives needles that don't sting. And whose touch and smile alone can make you feel better.

That was Carra Luke from the Nundah Doctors Surgery in Brisbane.

“Carra was the heart and soul of the practice, because having 20 years here, all of our patients at some point had interacted with her. And that compassion and true respect for the patient meant that they told her everything,” her colleague Dr Luis Prado told A Current Affair.

“(She) was one of my most amazing people I’ve met … a remarkable human being and nurse.”

For Prado and his wife, Luke was also their best friend, and her daughters, Stella and Zoe, were family.

So when this 48-year-old single Mum made a request of her friends one weekend, it wasn't out of the blue.

“Carra asked my wife and I that in the event that something should happen, could we look after the girls?” Prado recalled.

“Naturally, our response, since we've known the girls since they were born, was of course we're happy to help.”

One week later, Luke was dead, allegedly murdered by her estranged husband Shane Scheikowski.

“The day after this happened, I sat in the kitchen, looked at the locked door and wondered, because we had the girls with us … would anyone come in that door? That was the first time it struck me, that right there, and then I had fear,” Prado said.

Life as they knew it immediately changed.

“My wife took four months off work to look after the girls at home,” Prado recalled.

“(We) have a 35-year-old son. We thought we were over the whole parenting thing. Now we're back in that mould.”

But the couple wouldn’t have it any other way.

“They call me Papa Luis. I don't have daughters, but I consider them my daughters,” Prado said.

Luke’s two daughters are in fact young women.

Zoe had just turned eighteen in the days before her mum died, 

Older sister Stella bravely faced the unthinkable - holding her mother in her final moments.

“When you’re caring for people, when there's been an unimaginable, and it is an unimaginable terrible incident, and graphically terrible, there's no preparation,” Prado said.

It's a delicate balance very few know - but Danielle Carroll has walked this path, when her sister Kelly Wilkinson was murdered by her former partner in 2021, leaving behind three young children.

Without question, Carroll and her husband, Reece, gave the kids a home.

Overnight, their family of seven became a family of 109.

“Like every family, especially a blended family, there's always your ups and downs, but they've integrated really well, and I think sometimes I look at them and just go, Wow, they're doing so, so well — maybe even better than me sometimes,” she told A Current Affair. 

“But there’s always going to be points in their life where it's just, it will never be the same.”

How could it? One parent dead. The other accused of the most heinous crime.

And yet, unbelievably, there was no charity in Australia set up to provide long-term support for children left behind after an alleged domestic violence homicide.

So in her sister's honour, Carroll started the Kelly Wilkinson Foundation.

“For me right at the beginning, I was like, how can I show Kelly's children that this doesn't define their life and this charity really does that not just for them but for other families as well,” she said.

“I find them remarkable people – remarkable for us because it shows us as a pathway forward emotionally – how you can actually turn your emotions, your anger, into advocacy, into help,” Prado said.

Since 2024, the charity has helped 43 children – from newborns to young adults like Zoe and Stella – who've received financial support for driving lessons, technology for study, and soon, a car.

It's also Carroll’s way of giving back - after the community gave her family so much while she grieved for Wilkinson.

“We’ve just had our third annual Kelly's Long Lunch and I had a moment there where I stood back and just went wow, it's incredible to see so many people support our vision and what we want the charity to be,” she said.

At the Nundah Doctors surgery, Luke’s legacy lives on.

A treatment room has been named after her, a tribute to the unconditional care she gave every patient.

Luke’s daughters are studying and working - one has even moved in with other family.

But both girls will always have a home with Papa Luis.

“They're like daughters for us. We love Carra. We honour her by doing it. That's a request she made to us. We'll never let her down. But at the same time, dealing with anger, and I can't express the degree of anger, particularly as a male, that I have in this regard,” Prado said.

“I have considered what could have happened to Carra a hundred times a day. I, as a male, can say comfortably this, I carry the guilt of Carra's death on my heart every single day.

“But the girls were remarkable before, because they had a remarkable mother … they've been going through one of the most terrible challenges you can imagine. And they're still wonderful. So we're extraordinarily proud of them.”

The Kelly Wilkinson Foundation relies on public donations. If you’d like to support it head to the website here.