Relief for family in memorial for Lee

After eight years of "torture" the family of Northlander Lee Sheppard, who went missing while working in London, can finally put his memory to rest with a memorial service this month.
In February a coroner's hearing in London found that Mr Sheppard, 26, died due to asphyxiation in an industrial accident. Nine jurors gave an accidental death verdict and decided he died between 2.30am and 9.15am on January 31, 2003, at the European Metal Recycling (EMR) plant in North London.
The verdict has brought relief for Mr Sheppard's family, mother Rose said from Pahi yesterday, but particularly for his widow, Juliet, who was pregnant at the time of his disappearance with their son, Jaden. The memorial service will be held at Matakohe War Memorial Hall, from 1.30pm on April 9.
Juliet remarried last weekend and Rose Sheppard said with the coroner's verdict and the planned memorial service it was now time for the whole family to move on.
"It's finally got to this stage. The relief of having a conclusion to accept after all this time is huge and we can finally lay Lee to rest," Mrs Sheppard said.
"It's been shocking for us all, just torture, every day since Lee's disappearance. But since the coroner's findings we can start to move on and everybody can make some words up for Lee as their way of expressing their thoughts and memories."
She said Jaden knew his father well from the memories and photographs of his family.
"Jaden, our lovely little snowy-haired grandson, didn't get to know his dad in person, but he knows all about Lee. Jaden has a lot of his dad's personality in him and is a great kid. Sometimes he just does something and you think, 'That's Lee all over'," Mrs Sheppard said.
"Having everything hanging over us like that, not knowing what happened to Lee, was very destructive because you just can't get on with life, but we are now looking forward to doing the right thing by our boy."
She said the memorial would be open to all, but anybody wanting to attend and speak about Lee should contact: pahi@hotmail.co.nz
The second of five brothers, Lee married Juliet when he was 21, and they moved to the United Kingdom in 2002.
He worked for EMR from July 2002, living in Cricklewood, North London, with his wife, friends and some family members.
Lee's disappearance was a mystery for years, but a police reinvestigation brought to light new information in 2008 and helped lead to the inquest, after the family hired a New Zealand private investigator.