One year on family ask: Who killed Eddie Peters?

Eddie Peters was bashed on the night of September 29-30 last year and died eight days later. Photo / Supplied

Family of Hastings man Eddie Peters, who died after a bashing a year ago, have gathered for a memorial, waiting, as are police, for answers as to carried out the assault.

Peters was found badly beaten when residents in Diaz Dr, Flaxmere, investigated noises on their driveway just after midnight on November 16 last year.

It was early on a Friday morning, soon after he had left a nearby address where people had gathered after the end of a tangi the previous day.

Suffering critical head injuries, he never recovered and died in Wellington Hospital eight days later, on the Friday, November 24, 2018.

Police have said they are anxious to bring closure for the grieving family, and are still seeking any information people may have which could help lead to an arrest.

It's one of five homicide inquiries which started in Hawke's Bay within barely 10 months from the end of September last year to the start of the second week of August this year.

The first followed the death of Napier man Alex Latimer on a farm property off State Highway 5 near Te Haroto on September 30, 2018. Two men each denied a charge of murder, but they were found guilty at a High Court trial and sentenced last month to life imprisonment.

David James Lothian, who turns 28 next month, was ordered to serve a minimum 20 years in jail without prospect of parole, and James Taylor Martin Webby, now 25, to a minimum of 17 years and nine months. Lothian's sentence was the longest ever imposed in a Hawke's Bay court.

Three men have been charged separately with murder as a result of three other deaths, with two trials expected to be held in Napier and one in Gisborne next year.

One was charged after the death of a man with serious injuries after an incident at a property in Lumsden Rd, Hastings, on February 8, another after a man was shot dead at Mohaka in Northern Hawke's Bay on June 18, and another after a woman died from injuries received in an incident at a property in Huia St, Hastings, on August 15.

But there's still no such outcome for the family and friends of Eddie Peters, who in the wake of the tragedy a year ago were describing him as "kind-natured" and a "beautiful soul".