KEY POINTS:
Relatives of the father at the centre of an apparent murder-suicide were yesterday struggling to make sense of the incident. Graeme Dore, 67, and his special needs daughter Sarah-Jane, 27, were found dead from single gunshot wounds to their heads in a bedroom at their family farm near
Invercargill on Thursday afternoon.
A .22 calibre gun was found at the scene but police last night confirmed they were not seeking anyone else and the matter had been referred to the coroner.
"This is just not him," said Ian, one of Graeme's eight siblings. "No one had a bad word to say about him ever. This is madness, not him."
Another brother, Albert, said Graeme and his wife Catherine wore themselves down with community work and cared deeply for their daughter and two sons.
"They gave so much to Sarah-Jane. They didn't give 100 per cent as parents, they gave 200 per cent, but they've worn themselves out."
There was an eerie quiet around the property in Isla Bank, 30km from Invercargill yesterday.
Hundreds of metres from the nearest neighbour, a wooden sign marked visitors' arrival at Dorslea Downs, home of GJ Dore.
The brick house was surrounded by gardens, including a vegetable patch with silverbeet and herbs.
A wooden carriage surrounded by flowers stood on a grass island in the middle of the drive.
It was a fitting home for a family described as "ideal" by Gerry Sannum, one of the coaches of the New Zealand Special Olympics team of which Sarah-Jane was part.
Sannum had known the family for eight years and coached Sarah-Jane, a powerlifter, last year.
"She was quiet but very friendly, and enjoyed a joke. She was a great team supporter."
Sannum was with Sarah-Jane and her parents at the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Shanghai last year when Graeme became ill. "He became dehydrated and ended up in hospital. It could have been a precursor to all of this."
Sannum said he didn't know the ins and outs of Graeme's condition but knew he wasn't his "usual self". He didn't know whether the illness "set something off" and his "brain reacted" to something that led to this tragedy. "I had no idea something like this could turn out. Something got the better of him - whether the medication wasn't right, or he wasn't taking any. It's devastating."
Sources told the Herald on Sunday Graeme was stressed about the possibility of selling the farm.
He needed to be closer to medical support but loved the rural lifestyle.
Sannum said Graeme and Catherine, known to friends and family as Kate, were huge supporters of Special Olympics and gave as much free time to the organisation as they could.
"Graeme was very friendly. He was always there with Kate and Sarah-Jane. When Kate took on coaching Graeme was always in the background and supported all the athletes."
Sarah-Jane was a former pupil of Ruru Special School in Invercargill, where Graeme spent several years as chairman of the board of trustees.
She had a dog named Lulu and bred Shetland Ponies. Sannum said she didn't need 24-hour care for her disability.
She came third in last year's South Island open powerlifting championship and recorded a personal best at the Special Olympics in Hong Kong after training for three years.
"She's very capable," Sannum said. "She quietly gets on but notices things. It's just so, so sad."
Another Special Olympics coach, Colleen Sloane, said she loved Sarah-Jane "to pieces". "She was quiet, sweet and gentle. I was devastated when I heard the news."
Sannum believed New Zealand Special Olympics would have some form of memorial to remember Sarah-Jane. "It's devastated a close-knit community. But everyone has been able to pull around Kate and the boys."
