By Stacey Bodger
ROTORUA - Henk Bouma has not been back to the Reporoa farmhouse where Beverly, his wife of almost 25 years, was shot dead last November.
The memory of being woken from his sleep by four armed intruders - and the tragedy which followed - is still too raw.
The Plateau Rd dairy farm is up for sale, and Mr Bouma has employed a couple to manage it. He follows its progress over the phone.
But he refuses to let the loss of the 45-year-old mother-of-three hang over his family any longer. He tells them: "They can't take away what we have left."
About 40 family and friends of the Boumas packed into the High Court at Rotorua yesterday to hear Dillon Hitaua, aged 23, Mark Reihana, 17, and his brother Luke Reihana, 16, plead guilty to the manslaughter of Mrs Bouma.
David Tuhua Poumako, 25, who shot Mrs Bouma in the neck, pleaded guilty to her murder last week and was jailed for life.
As the charges were read to the accused, their families and supporters, all dressed in black and white, stood and tearfully joined arms.
Mr Bouma, who trembled as he listened to the guilty pleas, had been told of the possible confessions on Monday.
He was comforted by his son Russell and daughters Sandra and Cherie before the wider family formed a huddle outside the court.
Mr Bouma said it was an emotional time and too early to talk about the ordeal. He thanked his family and friends and "all of New Zealand" for supporting him.
Justice Salmon said the surprise pleas were the correct decision and would have been the right verdict for the jury to have reached.
Marie Dyhrberg, defence counsel for Mark Reihana, said the accused accepted they were guilty of manslaughter.
They had denied the murder charge because it had been vastly removed from their plan to rob the Boumas. Henk Bouma has moved to a Waikato town but does not wish to disclose which.
Russell Bouma, 22, continues to work on another Reporoa farm, where he was on the night of the murder.
Sandra and Cherie are still attending Hamilton Girls' High School, where they were boarding last November.
Sandra, 17, is preparing to sit sixth form certificate while Cherie, 15, is in the fourth form.
Mrs Bouma's sister, Karyn Brown, said the family were delighted with the pleas.
"Those men have accepted what they have done," she said, "and now we will accept what is ahead for us."
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