When Rohan Dennis shared a Christmas wish “from our family to yours”, alongside wife Melissa Hoskins and their two children on December 25 to social media, nobody could have predicted the tragedy that would follow just five days later.
Dennis and Ms Hoskins were a golden couple of Australian cycling. She was a dual Olympian who competed at the 2012 London (where the two met) and 2016 Rio Games, as well as a 2015 world champion before her retirement from professional cycling in 2017. He was a podium finisher at both the London and 2020 Tokyo Olympics, a two-time world champion and a stage-winner in the 2015 Tour de France.
Mr Dennis retired from professional racing in 2023 – and, after years of living between Europe and Australia, the pair were looking forward to a new beginning in the Adelaide Hills with their young family.
That all changed on the night of December 30, when police allege Mr Dennis fatally struck his 32-year-old wife with his Volkswagen Amarok ute near their $2.45m home in the affluent Adelaide suburb of Menindie.
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