The mother of a US student killed at an Auckland bus stop hopes the passion shown by her son, who could name 100 dinosaurs by age 2 and begged for pet tarantulas aged 10, lives on in a new university prize.
Carole Whorrall also expressed relief those believed linked to Kyle Whorrall’s alleged murder had now been arrested, but called it a “dagger in the heart” that they were so young.
Five teenagers, aged 17 and 18, will face court charged with his murder after police said 33-year-old Kyle was attacked with a bladed weapon in April while waiting at a Meadowbank bus stop.
The final arrests were made last week, eight months into the investigation.
Whorrall said she still felt a bond with New Zealand because her son, who was studying a PhD in entomology, had wanted to move here permanently, considering it “his country”.
To honour him, she was now funding an annual $1000 biology prize for University of Auckland students.
She hoped to reward students with the same “curiosity” and “spirit” as her son, who hunted for insects under rocks as a toddler, dressed as the Crocodile Hunter at Halloween and attended entomology meetings aged 11.
Despite her loss, she keeps an unusual but “special” connection to her son by caring for “Kyle’s kids”, his insect collection that included a bird-eating tarantula.
“I have three tarantulas, a rock scorpion and an enclosure full of beetles,” Whorrall said.
It comes as Kyle’s death – alongside the fatal stabbing of Sefo Leger on a bus this month – has shaken public confidence in the safety of Auckland’s public transport, despite officials noting violent incidents remained statistically rare.
Auckland Transport said it had been installing live CCTV cameras and duress buttons that allowed bus drivers to call for help in real time and was committed to public safety.
About 1.7 million journeys happened on Auckland’s city network in just one week, the agency said earlier this month.
Through the first half of this year, there were 29 assaults on bus drivers.
About 200 Herald readers also responded to a poll last week, with 60% saying they felt unsafe while using public transport.
Whorrall said she “felt support from the whole country” in response to her son’s death.
“People know about this case ... and really care and found this horrific,” she said.
And while she cannot bring her son back, she hoped the tragedy could bring change.
“I want New Zealanders to be safe... this is beyond Kyle.”
To honour Kyle and his connection to New Zealand, she had helped set up the Kyle Whorrall Biological Sciences Prize.
It aimed to support and motivate students studying master’s degrees in biological sciences at the University of Auckland.
Whorrall planned to fund it while she could but the university was also opening it up to anyone who wanted to donate to the prize.
Kyle became obsessed with the outdoors from the moment he could walk, Whorrall said.
By age 2, he was a toddling dinosaur dictionary who took his first steps into the garden to turn over rocks, fascinated by what scuttled out.
“When I look back at all the old pictures ... he’s always wearing a T-shirt, mostly with bugs on it, but every kind of animal – he loved them all,” Whorrall said.
He idolised Steve Irwin and dressed as the Crocodile Hunter one Halloween.
That led him to start pestering his mum daily from age 6 to visit Down Under.
When the family finally toured Australia and New Zealand, Kyle fell in love and tried to collect some of the Outback’s aggressive ants to bring home despite warnings about their bites.
At 11, he dragged his mum to entomology club meetings in Los Angeles’ Natural History Museum.
The two would sit with mostly old men talking all things bugs and field trips.
Whorrall often found “random” creatures in her house and would promptly ask for them to be returned outside.
From about 10 years old, Kyle begged for a pet tarantula.
Whorrall finally caved when he was 12 in what was the beginning of the hairy critter clan now in her custody.
His passion intensified through high school, spending weekends volunteering at the Los Angeles Zoo, meeting pioneering conservationist Jane Goodall and helping with condor preservation.
He went on to discover six new species of spider beetles in Peru during his master’s studies – one of which was now named after him – before moving to Auckland for his PhD.
Working with government agency Landcare Research, he was in the last stages of his paper.
He told his mother just weeks before his death there would “be a lot of surprises” in his findings, a statement his adviser later confirmed to Whorrall.
“That’s what just breaks my heart because he didn’t get to complete that,” she said.
Whorrall also wrote to David Attenborough, another of Kyle’s heroes, mostly out of “therapy” for herself.
She told the famed conservationist about her son’s life and tragedy.
Two weeks later, 99-year-old Attenborough’s “remarkable” handwritten letter returned in the mail, expressing his condolences and “grief for us”.
“That one really would have meant a lot to Kyle,” she said.
Kyle died in hospital in April 2025 after being attacked at a bus stop on St Johns Rd, Meadowbank.
Police alleged two people exited a black Mitsubishi Outlander SUV and struck him with a bladed weapon, inflicting “unsurvivable” injuries.
The investigation, dubbed Operation Aberfeldy, spanned eight months.
In September, police found a rusty machete in Maybury Reserve, 5km from the scene, before making what they expected to be their final arrests earlier this month.
Two 18-year-olds and three 17-year-olds have been charged with murder and aggravated robbery.
A 33-year-old woman was charged with being an accessory after the fact.