By ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE
When David McGruther left his drinking buddies at a Tauranga bar early on June 15, he said: "I'm going to take care of some business."
In retrospect, those words sound chillingly ominous.
Before dawn that day, the distinctive-looking, bald 25-year-old with the wispy goatee had killed Noel McKenzie in a violent home invasion.
There is little doubt that the transient McGruther was an angry young man, his periodic outbursts perhaps fuelled by drugs and alcohol. His own mother had a trespass order against him.
But police say they may never know why the first offender brutally murdered an apparent stranger in his bed - and McGruther, now serving a life sentence, is not talking.
He seems to have picked the brick house at the end of a quiet Tauranga cul-de-sac at random, although he had previously lived in the same suburb of Pillans Pt.
McGruther was to tell police later that he had returned to the old family home to look for his cat, before stopping at the McKenzie address.
For someone without form for burglary, McGruther proved adept at gaining entry through a partly open living-room window.
Arming himself with two good-quality knives from the kitchen, and making no effort at disguise, the well-built young man walked down the passage and launched a ferocious attack on the 64-year-old periodic detention warden.
He seemed not to notice Mr McKenzie's terrified wife, Ann, cowering on the other side of the bed. In less than a minute, the killer had gone, leaving his victim with 16 stab wounds, including a fatal one to the heart.
David McGruther was still at primary school in Auckland when he lost his hair, eyebrows and eyelashes to the disease alopecia totalis.
Being the butt of derision was tough for an 8-year-old. His mother, Pamela Whitehead, told police the teasing and bullying by other kids made him alternatively "withdraw into his shell or lose his bun".
His parents bought wigs, but McGruther stopped wearing them as he got older. His behavioural problems became harder to manage, prompting his concerned mother to go to Tough Love meetings.
By the age of 14 or 15, McGruther was drinking heavily and possibly taking drugs, she said in a depositions statement.
The family moved to Tauranga when McGruther was 16, ironically living just a few blocks from the McKenzies. The teenager refused to go to school and eventually moved into a flat.
He tried kiwifruit picking, but the hairy berries made him itchy.
At 17 he enjoyed a stint in the Territorials but decided the Army was too tough as a career.
By the time his parents separated in 1996, McGruther's confidence was sorely dented by his hair loss and, according to his mother, he always had "a chip on his shoulder".
Pamela Whitehead said she "came to the end of the road with David" after he smashed windows in her house, broke doors and threw things.
Over the years, he drifted between Auckland and Tauranga, taking various jobs but disliking being told what to do.
Back in Tauranga for a few weeks before the murder, McGruther stayed with an associate and worked briefly painting cars.
The evening of June 14 was a routine one for Noel and Ann McKenzie, who had been married for 42 years and raised five children.
They sat watching Coronation Street, she sipping a glass of wine and he a can of beer.
"Noel brought me my jar of nuts, which I always have," Mrs McKenzie told police.
Tired, the couple went to bed about 8.30 pm after Mr McKenzie had put their 5-year-old pug dog, Charlie, in his box in the laundry.
The nightmare they woke to before 5 am will haunt Ann McKenzie for ever. She is now afraid of the dark and still too traumatised to live alone. The neat Myres St house is on the market and the family are struggling to rebuild their shattered lives.
When David McGruther fled, he left tell-tale fingerprints and bloody footprints. He hastily headed for Auckland in his car, stopping at a Katikati service station at 5.30 am, where a forecourt attendant was struck by his red, bloodshot eyes. Despite the cold, he was barefoot and wearing a short-sleeved top.
By late afternoon, McGruther had booked into a Papatoetoe caravan park. Until his arrest 12 days later, he moved around South Auckland caravan parks and acquaintances. As money ran out, he slept in his car.
Five days after the murder, he went to visit his father, Piers McGruther, at a Mangere hostel. The younger McGruther had been evicted from the same hostel three months earlier because of his "out of control behaviour".
Mr McGruther told police his son appeared depressed and distressed, telling him on a second visit: "I think I've killed somebody."
He had a newspaper open at a story on the Tauranga murder and was crying.
While his father was inside contacting Middlemore Hospital, McGruther made an attempt to cut his wrists.
Mr McGruther took his son to the hospital where, he said, he had sought on previous occasions to have him assessed because of his anger and social problems.
When Detective Sergeant Lew Warner from Tauranga interviewed McGruther at a secure psychiatric unit in Otahuhu on June 27, the sobbing young man admitted killing a man with a knife.
"Why, why, why ... I don't know why I did it. I'm not a bad person."
McGruther, whom psychiatrists later ruled to be legally sane, also said: "I've lost my soul. I'm going to jail."
This week he pleaded guilty to murdering Noel McKenzie.
Detectives said they might visit him behind bars in the hope of finding a motive for the killing. But McGruther has instructed his lawyer, Paul Mabey, QC, that he does not want to speak to police.
Misfit turned killer remains an enigma
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