Val Burr, 64, shares her real life story. . .
Sitting around the barbie, I looked at my two kids and smiled. Life doesn’t get much better than this, I thought.
The three of us had flown over to [Europe for a family holiday](https://www.nowtolove.com.au/royals/international-royals/royals-favourite-places-europe-38718| target=”_blank”) and were tucking into dinner after a big day of exploring.
It was the first time my daughter, Tanya, 21, and son Kieran, 11, had been overseas and they were having a ball.
The age difference between them meant Tanya had already moved out by the time Kieran started to grow up.
Now they got to spend some quality time together, they’d finally started to get to know each other.
For two weeks we relaxed in Norway before it was almost time for Kieran and I to return home.
Tanya had decided to stay on and travel alone for a bit.
Back home, I counted down the days until Tanya’s return.
I knew she was independent and would be having a great time, but I missed her.
When she finally came home three weeks later, I listened to her talk non-stop about all the places she loved.
We pored over her photos of Rome and Paris.
“I had the best time!” she said.
Now the holiday was over for all of us, Tanya was heading back to her flat in Rotorua, four hours away, ready to begin a new job in a café.
I walked her to her car and said goodbye.
“I’m glad you’re back safe and sound,” I smiled.
We spoke on the phone again the next day.
Although Tanya was tired, she enjoyed being in her own bed with her cat Puffball by her side.
“It’s nice to be back home, Mum,” she said.
Val with Tanya and Kieran when they were younger.
The day after, I took one of my cats to the vet and when I got back in the afternoon, a man and woman were at the front door.
I thought they were Mormons at first because they were so well-dressed and serious-looking.
But when they introduced themselves as police, my heart started racing.
“Can we come inside?” the man asked.
Kieran was home too and joined me as they sat us down to talk.
“I’m very sorry but Tanya’s dead,” the policeman said.
I stared at the pair in disbelief.
I was still standing, clutching the cat box.
“But … I just spoke to her yesterday,” I stammered, thinking of our phone call the day before.
“Was it a car accident?”
None of this seemed real.
I could still hear Tanya’s voice from our previous phone call.
Poor Kieran looked so confused.
The police revealed she’d been stabbed to death.
A piece of paper and a pen lay next to her body.
After further investigation, police discovered a stranger had come to her apartment asking for a pen and paper.
He’d said he needed to leave a note for one of her neighbours.
True to her helpful and trusting nature, she’d gone to get it for him.
When she returned, he viciously stabbed her 15 times.
Tanya lay there alone, in a pool of blood, until the next morning when Kate came home and found her dead.
Family and friends came down to be with Kieran and me.
We were all in total shock that this could have happened.
By the time I got to Rotorua to see Tanya’s body, police had arrested 16-year-old John Wharekura.
After he’d stabbed my daughter, he’d stolen her car and I heard he fled to his girlfriend’s.
I was furious at him for taking my daughter’s life, and distraught that it had taken so long before the police were called.
Tanya might have been lying on the floor still alive during that time.
Maybe she could’ve been saved if an ambulance had been called.
Tanya’s act of kindness, something as simple as fetching a piece of paper and a pen for a stranger, had cost her her life.
Postcards from Tanya’s travels started to arrive the next day.
Reading her cheery messages, detailing all she’d seen, broke my heart.
Miss you, she’d written.
These cards were a reminder that her life had only just begun when it was taken from her so senselessly.
Kieran visiting Tanya’s grave.
Seeing John in court, I wondered how someone so young could even think of doing something so terrible, let alone go through with it.
Incredibly, he never offered a reason for what he did to my precious daughter.
John Wharekura was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with 14 years non-parole.
At 16 he’d become one of the country’s youngest killers.
But Tanya’s senseless death wasn’t the only shock.
An autopsy revealed she was 12 weeks pregnant with a baby boy.
“We had no idea!” her friends told me.
As far as we knew she hadn’t been seeing anyone long-term. She’d certainly never mentioned anything to me – perhaps she’d been waiting for the right time to tell us.
It broke my heart that she’d never get the chance to become a mum.
Thinking back to her love for her cats, I knew she would have been an amazing mother.
Now I was grieving for both my daughter and the grandson I’d never meet.
I named the child Brendan, which is what I’d have called Tanya if she’d been a boy.
I tried my best to get through the days. It broke my heart that my kids wouldn’t get to grow up together.
I kept Tanya’s car and drove it everywhere. Puffball and Phoebe came to live with me.
Puffball was so traumatised from being in the room when Tanya was murdered that he freaked out whenever anyone knocked on the door.
As the years went by, I joined The Red Raincoat Trust, a support network for families of homicide victims.
Talking to others who’d lost their loved ones helped me heal.
Last year, John was up for parole.
Puffball had just died so I took his ashes with me to the hearing.
I hoped his spirit could protect Tanya somehow.
Thankfully, John was denied parole.
Then this year, he applied for it again.
The board heard he’d been suffering a psychotic illness when he killed Tanya.
To me, that was no excuse.
Yet again, justice was on our side when he was denied parole once more.
0I couldn’t live with myself knowing he was out in the community, at risk of hurting others.
Nothing will bring back my darling daughter, but I’ll keep fighting to make sure people like her murderer never walk free.
