Murdered couple wanted new life

By Kristin Edge, Craig Nicholson and Anna Bowden
When Toni-Anne Nathan is laid to rest in Northland tomorrow she will be wearing the wedding dress she'd been waiting her whole life to wear.
And she will go to the grave never having fulfilled her dream of motherhood after many fruitless years of trying.
Toni, 39, and partner Mikaere O'Sullivan, 42, murdered under the Wairoa Bridge early on Monday morning, were planning to marry this year after 15 years together. They also planned to have a surrogate mother bear their child.
The couple were waiting for Mikaere's sister-in-law Danielle Morrissey to get out of prison for both happy occasions.
Danielle, 32, said Toni bought the old-fashioned wedding dress a couple of years ago and was altering it for the big day. She had been planning the wedding for a couple of years.
"They were waiting for me to get out of jail to have the wedding and I was going to be a bridesmaid," the Tauranga mother-of-two, said.
Two months ago, Toni and Mikaere asked Danielle if she would be a surrogate mother to their child and she agreed.
"I'd only been out of jail two days and they asked me again to have their child. I told them I'd do it.
"Children were really important to them. They have paid a lot of money to have IVF treatments in the past that failed."
Toni and Mikaere shared a close bond with Danielle and her two sons and had lived with them for two years prior to moving to Auckland.
"They came up from Gisborne to live with us, then went north. They moved down to Tauranga three months ago to start a fresh life.
"Toni was very kind and generous and used to write to me all the time in prison," she said. "Mikaere was an awesome guy, always there for me and the kids.
"He was a quiet guy who would do anything for anyone. He always wanted to help people. Too kind sometimes.
"My 12-year-old son has a disability and he took a real shine to Mikaere and used to go fishing with him."
Mikaere and Toni met at a party in Australia 15 years ago.
Mikaere had four boys from a previous marriage.
Mikaere will be buried in Rotorua on Friday, while Toni's funeral will be held at Opononi, near where her mother lives.
The couple, who lived together in Prole Rd, Omokoroa, were shot dead beneath the Wairoa River bridge.
Police have revealed they made a speedy early morning dash from Auckland to the Western Bay just before their bloodied bodies were discovered with their silver Nissan Skyline near Te Puna.
Investigation head Detective Senior Sergeant Greg Turner said the victims were in Henderson about 12.54am on Monday where they bought something at a petrol station.
Witnesses have told police they heard shots at the Wairoa Bridge at 2.46am.
Inquiries by the Bay of Plenty Times have revealed this was not the first time the couple had made an early morning trip from Auckland to Tauranga.
Police divers continued to scour the river today in search of a murder weapon as a specialist search team from Auckland moved in to widen the hunt along the riverbanks.
Work colleagues and friends yesterday described Mikaere and Toni as friendly and jovial.
Toni had been employed at a local Tauranga bakery and cafe on Cameron Rd for four weeks and was due to finish on Friday.
Her work colleagues spoke fondly of the slim, tall Maori lady who frequently talked about getting married to her long-term partner.
One worker said Toni was very well dressed and obviously cared about how she looked. "She had really nice gold rings and bracelets."
During the short time she worked there she spoke about her desire to wed.
"She had a veil and everything tucked away. She was always asking me for tips about the best way to do things. I got married two years ago and she was really interested in just doing the right thing for her own wedding," the woman said.
Toni was employed four days a week from Tuesday to Friday so colleagues were not expecting her in on Monday. About two weeks ago she had organised to have yesterday off to have a tattoo removed.
Her colleagues' suspicious were raised when they saw a photograph of the silver Nissan Skyline in a newspaper.
"We had a gut feeling it was her but this is terrible. It's such a shock."
Mikaere began working for a small tar sealing and driveway laying company, John's Roads, three months ago.
Owner John Robertson spoke to the Bay Times yesterday following the shocking murder of his "rough diamond" employee.
While he spoke highly of his work ethic, skills, character and cleanliness, Mr Robertson said there seemed to be something worrying him.
"There was always a question mark over his history we just couldn't make out. He gave hints a couple of times that he had wanted to get out of Auckland," he recalled.
"When he talked about it a cloud came over him. It was just that question mark, I had a feeling he wouldn't be [working] with us for that long ... something was worrying him."
Mikaere was recommended to Mr Robertson by a Prole Rd neighbour who knew him before he shifted to the Bay from Auckland.
Instantly taken by his manner and jovial personality, Mr Robertson hired Mikaere and was impressed further by his skills in drain-laying and his operation of Machinery.
"He was a very, very good worker, what I would call a rough diamond, a happy, jolly person," he said.
"He got on very well with the rest of the crew and knew his job well."
Mr Robertson knew of the couple's desire to start a family. "He often spoke of [Toni], he was very, very fond of her."
The only family Mr Robertson knew of was a brother of Mikaere.
Police are trying to work out why the couple had been in Auckland.
Mr Robertson said Mikaere had often travelled back to Auckland on weekends - and once had not returned until 3am on a Monday and skipped work.
"What's happened is unbelievable," he said.
Police say the mystery high-speed drive from Auckland on Monday could hold the key to why the duo were murdered.
"The inference is that the victims would have been visiting or had some other reason to be in Henderson on that Sunday night/Monday morning and we're obviously very keen to speak to anyone that had any contact with them when they were in the Auckland area," Mr Turner said.
Mr Turner said there would be members of the public that had seen the car on its speedy trip to the Western Bay and urged drivers to report any sightings of the silver 1999 Nissan Skyline with a registration number of SS2388 to police.
Police did not know why Mikaere and Toni were in Henderson or why they made the journey.
Police want to speak to anyone who had contact with them during the weeks before their death and are building up a profile of the couple.
Mr Turner would not comment on whether the victims were previously known to police.
A team of 40 police officers, including 23 investigators, six dive squad members, finger print technicians from Waikato and staff from Auckland who are helping with the post mortem examinations, are working on the case.
The rural cottage in Prole Rd where the couple lived is under scrutiny by forensic officers.
Individual items including beer cans were dusted for fingerprints outside the white weatherboard cottage.
A Toyota Hilux Surf wagon parked at the house and registered to a Whakatane man is also being thoroughly examined. The owner told the Bay Times yesterday he had loaned the vehicle to one of his workers but refused to comment any further.
The house, trimmed in forest green, is in the middle of a paddock which is owned by Tauranga City Council.
Council communications adviser Frank Begley said the Prole property was originally part of an endowment gifted to the council possibly as far back as the 1890s.
Mr Begley thought the tenants had been in the cottage for several months but less than a year. The council leases the 2.2ha property, which is sub-let.
Over the past three months Mikaere had allowed neighbourhood teenagers to ride their trail bikes on his property after school.
"He was real helpful, a real cool fella," said one of the Omokoroa teens. "Most afternoons three or four of us would go down for a ride.
"If our bikes broke down he'd give us parts and help us fix them."
Mikaere liked to fish for kahawai and whitebait in the river and would set nets.
He also liked shooting, the teen said.
"Toni was a real happy person, always laughing."
The grass around the house was regularly mown, according to neighbour Liz Fowler, whose property backs on to the cottage.
"I didn't know them, I never met them ... there was never any trouble."
Another Prole Rd resident and neighbour to John's Roads premises, Bill Mackie, met Mikaere about three weeks ago when he saw him picking oranges from the section next to his.
"I was talking to him through the fence," he told the Bay Times. "He seemed enthusiastic, he really loved working for John ... he said it was the best job he ever had, he seemed really enthusiastic about life at the time."
The dive squad spent yesterday in and out of the water searching for a firearm or any other item that might be linked to the murders. Senior Sergeant Bruce Adams said the visibility in the river ranged from zero to 1.5m. They would be back in the water again today.