World cycling champion Rohan Dennis shared a family photo in front of a Christmas tree, days before he reportedly hit his Olympian wife in his car.
Dennis, 33, was smiling from ear to ear in the photo as he posed in front of the decorated tree with his wife Melissa Hoskins, 32, and their two children.
“Merry Christmas from our family to yours,” the couple and their children smile, each with a protective hand on the child in front of them,” he wrote on Instagram.
Just four days later, police allege Dennis hit his wife Melissa with his black ute on a street in the northern Adelaide suburb of Medindie at 8pm on Saturday.
Melissa was taken from the scene in an ambulance with serious injuries, but died in hospital, after which police arrested Dennis and charged him with causing his wife's death.
Since then, several posts have surfaced on social media of Dennis rejoicing over his wife and their two children.
Posted on Instagram just four days before police allege Rohan Dennis (right) struck Melissa Dennis (left) with his black ute, the Olympic cyclist wrote 'Merry Christmas from our family to yours'
Dennis posted this photo of his children a year ago, sitting in his car parked in Adelaide, saying how happy he was and 'sometimes I don't appreciate everything I have'
Just two weeks ago, Dennis posted a photo of himself and his wife laughing in a car on the way to a wedding.
“I finally did it, I finally made @melissmdennis lose the plot #lifegoalachieved,” the caption read.
When a friend replied “it was only a matter of time,” Dennis responded with laughing emojis: “She was a lot harder to crack than I thought.”
Dennis was released on bail this weekend after being charged with causing death by dangerous driving, careless driving and endangering life.
The couple were both Olympic-level cyclists, with Dennis taking home a silver medal in 2012 and a bronze medal in 2020, while his wife missed out on a medal by just 0.18 seconds in 2012.
The couple married in 2018 and have a five-year-old son and a youngest daughter.
The fatal collision took place on a leafy, tree-lined street in one of Adelaide's wealthiest suburbs, where the Dennis family is believed to own a home.
Neighbors reported seeing a black ute towed from the street and police were filmed standing around a crime scene with a pile of clothes in the road.
Just a year ago, Dennis posted a photo of his two children sitting in the back of a black ute.
'Sometimes I don't appreciate everything I already have. Then I see pictures like this,” the caption read.
Some social media users complimented him on his car, saying “nice pickup.”
Another said: 'You're doing well brother, we all miss what's right in front of us sometimes, but then you pull your head out of your ass and realize 'I'm a lucky man' and life gets even better' .
Rohan Dennis posted this alongside the selfie of the smiling couple who attended a wedding on December 15
Two weeks before she died, Melissa Dennis snapped this selfie of the couple laughing in a car on their way to a wedding, with Rohan joking that it had taken effort to control his wife
Police at the crime scene on a street in Adelaide's wealthy inner city Medindie, where Olympian Melissa Dennis died after allegedly being struck by her husband's hand
Both of the couple's Instagram pages show a young family traveling abroad, drinking wine with friends and enjoying time together, while Ms Dennis writes in her biography 'Wife and Mum'. Lover of family, food, travel and wine.
The same month, Dennis posted a photo of the couple enjoying wine and cheese in a vineyard with the words: “the future is looking pretty bright.”
The family had in recent years split their time between Adelaide and Spain, where Rohan competed professionally with several European teams until announcing his retirement last year.
Six weeks ago he posted a photo of himself in the pool with his two children at a hotel in Dubai, writing 'a much needed decompression here #rollercoasterofemotions'.
A week later, the couple posed in front of a pyramid in Egypt, with Rohan posting: “Huge bucket list moment, definitely didn't disappoint!”
Relaxing upstairs in a vineyard, the couple split their time between Adelaide and Spain, where Rohan Dennis was a professional cyclist until his recent retirement.
Melissa Dennis is loaded into an ambulance to be taken to hospital, where she died shortly afterwards and her husband was charged with causing death by dangerous driving and endangering life
More recent photos show him relaxing with his young daughter in his living room with the Christmas tree, and outside with a barbecue in his neatly fenced backyard.
Medindie is known for its “old money” real estate with colonial-era homes on large lots, and has a median home price of $3 million.
In her racing career, Melissa Hoskins was part of the Australian track cycling pursuit team, which finished fourth at the London Olympics and won gold at the 2015 World Championships, breaking the world record for the event.
The same year, Rohan set a record for the longest distance covered in an hour and started the Tour de France in pole position after winning the stage one individual time trial, although he finished outside the top 100.
He was awarded the Sir Hubert Opperman Medal and Trophy for Australia's best all-round cyclist for 2015.
Rohan Dennis will appear in court in Adelaide on March 13.