Read Online Who Killed Scott Guy? by Mike White - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Mike White
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the Foxton pisser. I’d driven to Foxton to meet Charlie from Otaki Hunting & Fishing and transfer some stock because he had a shoot coming up.’
After handing over the equipment at around 7 pm, Kerry suggested they might as well go for a drink. ‘And we’d only just opened the beer and I’d poured a glass and had a sip when the phone went. It was quite noisy so I walked out onto the footpath, got the news, walked back in to Charlie, told him what was happening and said, “Don’t say a fucking thing to anybody, I’m out of here.”’
The phone call had been from his other son, Blair, a detective who worked in Wellington. When police arrested Ewen they felt it best to tell Blair and let him break it to his family. He’d initially rung his parents’ home just outside Feilding but when his mother, Marlene, answered, Blair wouldn’t say what it was about, instead asking where Kerry was.
So it was left to Kerry, after getting the news in Foxton, to tell his wife that their younger son had just been charged with Scott’s murder and was now locked in a police cell. Marlene was making cupcakes for their grandchildren when he called, and remembers just being frozen with disbelief after she’d hung up. She hadn’t even known Ewen was going to be interviewed, hadn’t known he’d been in the police station all day.
Blair had said he was packing a bag and coming up to Feilding for the night and so they all arranged to meet at Anna and Ewen’s house. When Kerry arrived about 9 pm, he walked in, gave Anna a hug, then noticed several strangers sitting around the dining room table and asked Anna who they were.
She told him they were police, including investigation head Sue Schwalger, so Kerry went and sat down with them. Finally he turned to Schwalger and asked, ‘So what have you charged him with?’ and Schwalger rattled off the list of crimes, including Scott’s murder. ‘Oh yeah,’ Kerry replied then paused. ‘Got any advice?’
Schwalger asked what he meant.
‘My son’s been arrested—what do we do now? Have you got any advice? I assume you’ve been through this before.’
Kerry recalls Schwalger was stunned. ‘She said nothing. Totally fucked her. She couldn’t give any advice. It could have been a number—here’s victim support or our liaison officer or whatever. There was no humanity to it.’
For Kerry and Marlene, it was the first realisation that when something like this happens, lines are quickly drawn by police as well as the public. An us-and-them environment evolves, with the accused’s family generally among the ‘them’. In contrast, Kylee’s sister, Chanelle Bullock, said at the time of Macdonald’s arrest, ‘The police have been so personable, they’ve become our friends.’
While the Guy family received huge sympathy and assistance—and rightfully so—the Macdonalds often had to flounder their own way through a bewildering system and the situation they’d been thrown into. Even simple things like what courtroom Ewen would be appearing in and when were never passed on to them. ‘Nothing’s ever explained. You just learn it as you go along,’ says Marlene.
After being arrested, Ewen Macdonald had finally phoned a lawyer. Remarkably, despite being continually reminded he could contact one at any time during his interview, he’d never shown any interest in doing so—not really thinking he needed one. When he realised how serious things had become, he called Peter Coles, who lived in Feilding and had known the Macdonald family for years. Coles had often gone fishing with Kerry Macdonald, and Anna had worked as his receptionist for three years. He’d been to Ewen’s 21st and his wedding to Anna, and the couple had come to his 50th birthday party, a 1960s-themed affair at the old Feilding Racecourse.
Ewen had dressed up as Austin Powers and Anna as Felicity Shagwell, wearing knee-length boots and a miniskirt, with her hair done up on top of her head. Coles recalls her
After handing over the equipment at around 7 pm, Kerry suggested they might as well go for a drink. ‘And we’d only just opened the beer and I’d poured a glass and had a sip when the phone went. It was quite noisy so I walked out onto the footpath, got the news, walked back in to Charlie, told him what was happening and said, “Don’t say a fucking thing to anybody, I’m out of here.”’
The phone call had been from his other son, Blair, a detective who worked in Wellington. When police arrested Ewen they felt it best to tell Blair and let him break it to his family. He’d initially rung his parents’ home just outside Feilding but when his mother, Marlene, answered, Blair wouldn’t say what it was about, instead asking where Kerry was.
So it was left to Kerry, after getting the news in Foxton, to tell his wife that their younger son had just been charged with Scott’s murder and was now locked in a police cell. Marlene was making cupcakes for their grandchildren when he called, and remembers just being frozen with disbelief after she’d hung up. She hadn’t even known Ewen was going to be interviewed, hadn’t known he’d been in the police station all day.
Blair had said he was packing a bag and coming up to Feilding for the night and so they all arranged to meet at Anna and Ewen’s house. When Kerry arrived about 9 pm, he walked in, gave Anna a hug, then noticed several strangers sitting around the dining room table and asked Anna who they were.
She told him they were police, including investigation head Sue Schwalger, so Kerry went and sat down with them. Finally he turned to Schwalger and asked, ‘So what have you charged him with?’ and Schwalger rattled off the list of crimes, including Scott’s murder. ‘Oh yeah,’ Kerry replied then paused. ‘Got any advice?’
Schwalger asked what he meant.
‘My son’s been arrested—what do we do now? Have you got any advice? I assume you’ve been through this before.’
Kerry recalls Schwalger was stunned. ‘She said nothing. Totally fucked her. She couldn’t give any advice. It could have been a number—here’s victim support or our liaison officer or whatever. There was no humanity to it.’
For Kerry and Marlene, it was the first realisation that when something like this happens, lines are quickly drawn by police as well as the public. An us-and-them environment evolves, with the accused’s family generally among the ‘them’. In contrast, Kylee’s sister, Chanelle Bullock, said at the time of Macdonald’s arrest, ‘The police have been so personable, they’ve become our friends.’
While the Guy family received huge sympathy and assistance—and rightfully so—the Macdonalds often had to flounder their own way through a bewildering system and the situation they’d been thrown into. Even simple things like what courtroom Ewen would be appearing in and when were never passed on to them. ‘Nothing’s ever explained. You just learn it as you go along,’ says Marlene.
After being arrested, Ewen Macdonald had finally phoned a lawyer. Remarkably, despite being continually reminded he could contact one at any time during his interview, he’d never shown any interest in doing so—not really thinking he needed one. When he realised how serious things had become, he called Peter Coles, who lived in Feilding and had known the Macdonald family for years. Coles had often gone fishing with Kerry Macdonald, and Anna had worked as his receptionist for three years. He’d been to Ewen’s 21st and his wedding to Anna, and the couple had come to his 50th birthday party, a 1960s-themed affair at the old Feilding Racecourse.
Ewen had dressed up as Austin Powers and Anna as Felicity Shagwell, wearing knee-length boots and a miniskirt, with her hair done up on top of her head. Coles recalls her
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