Editorial: Not easy waiting for answer

It will be a nervous time for all families involved as Peter Beckett goes on trial for murder, a second time.

Laura Letts-Beckett's family are still waiting for answers.

Their daughter was taken from them too soon.

On August 18, 2010 the Canadian school teacher died during a fishing trip to Upper Arrow Lake with her husband - former Napier City councillor Peter Beckett. At the time it was thought she drowned.

Then questions were raised and Beckett was charged with her murder.

More than six years have passed since her death and that relief that encompasses victim's families when a jury reaches a decision has not come.

There has been no closure for the Letts family.

A jury failed to reach a decision after a lengthy trial last year in the British Columbia Supreme Court in Kamloops, Canada.

During the trial, Beckett's lawyer claimed his second wife was suicidally depressed, and either committed suicide or drowned accidentally.

The prosecutor claimed Beckett killed her as he wanted her inheritance.

It was a hung jury. So Beckett was returned to his Canadian prison cell.

He vented his frustration in a prison interview calling the proceedings a "Kangaroo Court".

He and his family too are wanting a definitive answer.

Now a new trial date has been set with Beckett heading back to court in May.

And so the details of Letts-Beckett's death will be replayed once more and her state of mind again put under scrutiny.

It must be excruciating sitting in court listening to lawyers talk about your daughter - the one that was no longer able to speak for herself.

It also wouldn't be easy listening to the evidence painting your son as a greedy murderer.

Which ever way it goes, I hope the jury reaches a verdict simply so both families can put it behind them.