- Trinity Oliver, 16, met her killer, Vikhil Krishna, on Facebook
- At Vikhil Krishna’s trial, the court heard he was under the influence of methamphetamine
- Her mum Makareta Oliver faced Trinity’s killer in court
- Here, Makareta, 50, from Auckland, New Zealand shares her story
My daughter, Trinity, curled up in bed with our new puppy, Shadow.
“He’s so cute,” she said.
It was 2021 and we’d recently welcomed Shadow into our lives.
He quickly grew attached to my daughter, and began sleeping in her bed.
I wasn’t surprised. Trinity had always shared a loving bond with our pets.
My partner, Mathew, and I also loved watching her play with her younger brothers and sisters, Tristan, 14, Mathew, 13, and Dakota, 12, and her niece Amaia, three, who all adored her.
Together, Mathew and I raised seven kids, including our older children Jade, 27, Jasmine, 25 and Chance, 20, and it made me proud to see how much Trinity looked after her siblings.
A few days later, in July 2021, I was woken in the middle of the night by pounding on the door.
I opened it to find Trinity looking distressed.
“Mum, Shadow’s been taken!” she cried.
“Who took him?” I asked, in shock.
Trinity said Shadow came with her that night when she went out driving with a man named Vikhil.
“Shadow had an accident in his car and Vikhil just flipped,” she explained.
She said Vikhil choked Shadow and pushed and yelled at Trinity when she tried to get him to stop, so she ran home to get away from him.
Trinity started frantically messaging Vikhil.
“Let me take care of this,” I told her.
I took Trinity’s phone and texted Vikhil, calmly asking him to return our dog, which he agreed to do, and arranged for us to meet outside a grocery store.
I could smell strong alcohol fumes on Vikhil, who appeared to be in his early 20s, as he approached us.
Alarm bells rung
“Stay away from my daughter,” I warned him. “She’s only 16.”
He handed our puppy back and left without saying a word.
Luckily, Shadow was fine.
I later learnt Trinity had recently met Vikhil through Facebook. I told her not to see him again.
“I won’t,” she agreed.
Two months later, I got up early to start my paper run, delivering pamphlets around the local area.
Trinity normally joined me for this, but when I went to her bedroom she was nowhere to be found.
I didn’t think much of it. Trinity was most likely out with her cousins.
That afternoon, I received a text. Be home tonight, Trinity wrote. Sorry, s**t happened.
Next morning, Trinity still wasn’t home and she didn’t answer my calls. It wasn’t like her to be gone for so long without texting me, but I still had faith she’d be back soon… until I spotted police officers walking towards our home.
My family and I crowded at the front door to speak to them. They told us they were trying to identify a body that had been found nearby in south Auckland.
Our hearts were broken
“Do you recognise this necklace?” one asked.
“That’s Trinity’s!” Dakota cried.
The officer showed us a photo of the body. Staring at the image, I realised in horror that it was Trinity.
As Mathew ran out onto the street in distress and my children started crying, I stood still, too shocked to listen to what the police were saying.
Before I had time to comprehend how or why my daughter was gone, I was rushed to the morgue to identify her body.
Seeing Trinity’s body, which was covered in bruises and scars, was gut-wrenching. Her hair had been shaved off and I could barely recognise her.
I learned she’d been found naked in a secluded area near train tracks the day before. An autopsy revealed she’d been strangled.
A few days later, the police returned with CCTV images of Trinity sitting in a car the day before her body was found.
“I know that car,” I told them. “It’s Vikhil’s.”
“You have destroyed my family”
Markareta Oliver
Vikhil was arrested six days later. I hated him for what he’d done. Trinity had her whole life ahead of her and he’d stolen it from her.
In 2022, Jade fell pregnant with a baby girl.
“Would it be okay if I called her Trinity?” she asked.
“I’d love that,” I said.
Knowing Trinity’s name would live on in her niece meant so much to me.
At his trial in February 2023, Vikhil admitted to causing Trinity’s death, but his defence argued his charge should be downgraded from murder to manslaughter because they said Vikhil was suffering from meth-induced psychosis at the time.
Being a witness at the trial was easy for me. I wanted to face him and make sure he got what he deserved.
We learned that, after killing my teenaged daughter Trinity Oliver, who’d been briefly involved with him, Vikhil Krishna was so high he’d driven through red lights, stood outside his car with his pants off and even called emergency services to say he’d been the victim of a car-jacking.
He’d then booked a ticket to Fiji, where he was born before moving to New Zealand at age nine, but police arrested him one day before the flight.
In March this year, Vikhil Krishna, 25, was found guilty of murder.
Though it wouldn’t bring Trinity back, I was happy that a dangerous man was off the streets, especially after Vikhil’s violent past was revealed in court.
He’d previously been convicted for choking and assaulting his sister in 2015. Three years later, he strangled his ex-partner.
At his sentencing, where Vikhil received life in prison with a non-parole period of 14 years, I stood alongside the urn with Trinity’s ashes to deliver my victim impact statement.
“You have destroyed my family by taking a daughter, sister, aunt, and cousin away,” I told Vikhil. “Trinity will be dearly missed, but never forgotten.”
Today, it’s the little things I miss most about Trinity: her beautiful smile and the fun moments we shared.
Mathew, my children and grandchildren are the reason I get up every day.
I’m sharing my story to keep Trinity’s name alive, because the more I speak it, the more it feels like she’s not gone. She’ll always be a part of me.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, contact 1800 RESPECT (Aust) or the Women’s Refuge 0800 733 843 (NZ).
