By JO-MARIE BROWN
It was a horrific way to die.
Doused in petrol and standing upright, Edwina Zelda Graham burned head to toe, front to back while her enraged partner pushed past her and escaped out the bathroom window of their Papamoa home.
Edward Tapsell later claimed he had been trying to commit suicide and had covered himself in petrol.
The mother of his children had merely been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
But after spending the past week listening to the gruesome details of Ms Graham's death, a jury in the High Court at Rotorua yesterday found him guilty of murder and arson.
Detective Sergeant Todd Pearce said it was the worst homicide he had investigated during his 16-year CIB career.
"It is everybody's worst nightmare to imagine dying like that," he said.
"The way he killed her was just terrifying, but I believe his motivation for doing that was born out of extreme frustration and jealousy."
The couple's nine-year de facto relationship was marked by violence and Tapsell's possessive behaviour.
While living in Meremere in the mid-1990s, Ms Graham fled to a women's refuge in Auckland after Tapsell gave her a black eye and threatened to kill her if she ever left.
But after three or four months, she gave in to his persistence and returned home.
Their move to Papamoa in 2000 was supposed to be a fresh start, one which Ms Graham seemed to relish.
She enrolled in a sports and fitness course and Tapsell got a job as a security guard at the local Warehouse store.
Ms Graham's new friends watched her grow in confidence. She was "going out there and opening herself up to the world", one acquaintance said.
But Tapsell was not at all pleased. He stayed home and babysat their three children while Ms Graham went out partying. He resented her newfound independence and constantly checked up on her.
By October 2002, their relationship had reached breaking point.
He accused her of having an affair - she did have her eye on another man - and they separated days before the fire.
But Tapsell was not going to let it end there. On Saturday, October 19, he left his children at his sister's home and returned to Gravatt Rd, where he lay in wait for Ms Graham.
A neighbour remembered seeing Tapsell siphoning petrol from his car into two plastic bottles and taking them inside about 7.30pm.
Ms Graham was at the home of her friend Marie Ramsden, telling her she had ended her relationship with Tapsell and that he was upset.
Tapsell had again threatened to kill the 30-year-old, although Ms Graham seemed unconcerned.
Just before 8pm, she went home to get a swimsuit and a towel so she could join Ms Ramsden at the hot pools in Mt Maunganui.
Minutes later, while waiting in the car for her friend to return, Ms Ramsden saw smoke rise from Ms Graham's home.
People rushed to the property when they realised the house was on fire.
Neighbours heard a woman screaming, but when they repeatedly asked Tapsell - who had escaped and collapsed on the front lawn - if anyone else was inside, he replied, "No".
Police later found Ms Graham's body in the hallway beside the bathroom. Her clothes were completely burned, and traces of petrol were found under her body and around the home.
Forensic scientists said she would have died within 90 seconds amid temperatures of 100C.
Tapsell also suffered life-threatening burns and was not initially expected to survive.
He soaked himself under the shower before climbing out the bathroom window but his upper body, arms and face are scarred for life.
After yesterday's verdict, Ms Graham's uncle, John Graham, said he was no longer angry at Tapsell and instead felt sad for his family.
"Both of our families have gone through hell ... but it's long past. There are some things you just have to live with."
The presiding judge, Justice Geoffrey Venning, will sentence Tapsell next month.
Agonising death after partner's fiery revenge
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