Keeping Ashlee Edwards' spirit alive

Karen Edwards says her daughter "was a typical Kiwi kid who met the worst kind of man".

Jimmy Akuhata will be sentenced for murdering Ashlee Edwards next month. He admitted killing her by throwing her over a bridge then forcing her head under the water until she struggled no more. Who was Ashlee Edwards, the mother of Akuhata's two children? Karen Edwards tells reporter Kristin Edge about Ashlee as a child, and how her precious daughter met the worst man in the world

A STACK of red bound photo albums sits on the kitchen table in a beautiful historic family farmhouse.

Inside there are hundreds of moments, memories and snap shots of life -- birthdays, first steps, school days, swimming in the surf.

Now their existence takes on a special meaning as they are a record of 21-year-old Ashlee Edward's life -- the happy days of her life.

Karen Edwards will, in years to come, use the albums as part of explaining to her granddaughters how wonderful their mum was, and also the nightmare of how their daddy took their mummy's life.

One can't even begin to understand how heartbreaking that moment will be.

Gazing out the kitchen window across the country garden to well grazed paddocks, that spread out like a quilted blanket on the family farm at Okaihau, 44-year-old Karen reflects on her daughter's life and the torture it has been since her death.

She gently runs a hand down the cover of a photo album and opens it.

Murder victim Ashlee Edwards

A photo inside the plastic sleeve shows Karen with a beaming smile holding her first born child to her breast, the father proudly looking over the hospital bed.

After three and a half hours of labour, 20-year-old Karen gave birth to Ashlee Louise Anne Edwards at 9.55am on March 31, 1991, at Whangarei Hospital.

"Later that day she was lying in her crib and I was lying there watching, just fascinated. There was that realisation she was so dependant on me. I had this overwhelming feeling that I just had to protect her."

She glances up, her brown eyes full of hurt.

"So it was devastating in the end when I wasn't able to protect her."

Ashlee was a smiley, cute baby, the type of baby people in the supermarket are drawn to.

After six months Karen became a solo mother. She worked at a bank to support her and her baby.

"It was me and my little girl ... my little mate, actually."

Ashlee went to daycare and kindergarten before going to Maungatapere Primary School. She made friends easily, even though she battled with a skin condition, atopic dermatitis, which attracted a fair amount of playground teasing.

While she didn't have a passion for school work, her love for animals and art quickly showed through. Ashlee's first pencil sketch, drawn on day one of school, is framed and hangs on the bedroom wall of the farmhouse where her two daughters now live.

Her first pet lamb collected top honours at pet day and was awarded the purple champion sash.

LITTLE GIRL

Growing up, she went to swimming lessons, played netball and, showing a talent for playing the piano, was one of two students called upon to play for special school occasions.

"She had musical ability. I certainly didn't. I was so proud of her. We would go to Forum North and watch her play and I would think, 'That's my little girl up there'," Karen says.

Their bond only strengthened when Karen decided to cross the ditch in 2001, a week after 9/11, and spend 17 months in Australia on a trip of a lifetime.

The two of them lived in Byron Bay for 12 months, then travelled and camped along the east coast of New South Wales until Karen became homesick and headed back to Northland.

"That whole experience bought us closer together."

Back on home turf, Ashlee went to Okaihau College for a year then spent three years boarding at Whangarei Girls' High School.

It was Ashlee's flamboyant, fun-loving nature that perhaps saw her disregard school rules. After two bunking episodes, one of which involved police searching for her, Ashlee was taken north to Okaihau College again.

Karen wasn't happy when Ashlee decided to leave school and was keen to help her into a chef career. Ashlee was keen to get a skill but didn't want to get a student loan, instead choosing to work and get a bulk of the fees before enrolling in a course.

However, six months after Ashlee started a job at Kerikeri New World, Karen noticed the money was not making it into her daughter's saving account.

It was then Akuhata, nicknamed "Fats", from Ti Tii and well known to police from a young age, entered Ashlee's life. They met at a party.

"People warned me about him. All we heard was bad news ... alarm bells started ringing," Karen says, her head dropping.

Ashlee got a new job at the Bakehouse in Kerikeri and Karen heard Akuhata was hanging around making a nuisance of himself.

Karen's mother got wind that Ashlee was living with Akuhata in a caravan at Ti Tii and hightailed it there to get Ashlee on the ruse of a family emergency.

It was the first time any of Ashlee's family had met Akuhata and it wasn't pleasant.

"He went berserk at mum taking Ashlee. He really made it very, very clear he wanted us to stay away."

Karen tried to warn her daughter off Akuhata, even contacting Kerikeri police to get the family violence co-ordinator to talk to Ashlee.

But on Boxing Day in 2008, 17-year-old Ashlee, who didn't spend Christmas with her mother for the first time in her life, rang to say she was pregnant.

"She was so easily influenced by him and was your typical infatuated teenager. Later on I realised how manipulative he was. I felt like I was starting to lose my own child."

Karen tried to talk with her daughter but it was clear she was not telling all about the relationship Karen suspected was violent.

She noticed changes in her daughter -- tough behaviour, swearing and spitting.

Ashlee had a baby girl but, three months later, Akuhata was charged with assaulting Ashlee. Later that year he did a jail stint for the assault.

Karen learned there were other assaults Ashlee never mentioned.

While Akuhata was behind bars, Karen says she got her "bubbly" Ashlee back.

"It was like all the stress was gone. It was like getting my girl

back again." A month after Akuhata was released a protection order was put in place.

But in an "on again, off again" relationship, Ashlee fell pregnant again.

Karen recalls: 'She was keeping things from me and not telling me the full story."

In the days before she was killed, Ashlee had warned Whangarei police that Akuhata had breached the order and had threatened to kill, rape her and cut off her head.

Then it was too late.

KAREN REMEMBERS THE PHONE CALL.

"I just about didn't answer it. It was mum saying a cousin had sent a text to say sorry to hear about Ashlee drowning. Mum said something about it being on Facebook.

"I rang Ashlee's mobile the whole time thinking 'just pick up'. There was a dreaded feeling and there was no response."

Finally, after a call to police, she was told Ashlee was dead and a detective would ring her back.

"I was in absolute disbelief. I wanted to identify her myself. Until I did that I believed they had got it wrong.

"I remember crying. She looked peaceful and pretty."

During the tumultuous days that followed, Karen was also faced with Akuhata's whanau trying to take Ashlee's body from a Kerikeri funeral parlour.

Hundreds turned up at Okaihau for Ashlee's funeral to farewell the young mum who had been happy-go-lucky and full of spirit, before she was laid to rest in the township's picturesque cemetery at the historic St Catherine's Church.

Since then the wheels of justice have turned excruciatingly slowly. It has been a tortuous wait. Nearly two years and eight months after the death, Akuhata admitted he murdered Ashlee.

Karen says she has lived a nightmare and been in limbo since Ashlee's death.

"It was a shock to hear it. All along he could have done this but he waits till now. Our lives have been absolutely ripped apart ... absolutely ripped apart."

The only consolation is that the family will not have to sit through a five-week trial.

Akuhata admitted he pushed Ashlee over a bridge in central Whangarei then grabbed her hair and held her beneath the water until she showed no signs of life.

In the police summary of facts, it was revealed Akuhata and Ms Edwards had been in an "on again, off again" relationship for about six years.

But when Akuhata murdered Ashlee, they were apart and there was a protection order in place for Ashlee and her two daughters.

On the night of July 26/27, 2012, Akuhata had two tickets for a promotional event at Malbas bar in Whangarei, and invited Ashlee along.

During the night, he became angry with her over text messages she was getting on her cellphone. CCTV footage showed them leaving the bar about 1.55am and then 15 minutes later at the Lower Tarewa Rd bridge.

They were arguing when Akuhata lifted her up and over the railing into Waiarohia Stream. Once in the stream there was a struggle until Akuhata grabbed her hair and held her head under the water.

Once she showed no signs of life, he went home where he told a family member Ashlee was dead. When Akuhata was found by police later the same day, he refused to comment.

The trial was delayed as Akuhata was beaten while on remand in prison and received brain injuries. He was later deemed fit to stand trial.

GRANDMOTHER

Karen, 44, fought for custody of her granddaughters and is their legal guardian. While being a grandmother to girls aged 3 and 5, she is also mum to two sons aged 7 and 8. She is on her own again but doing the best she can for her young family.

While trying to make things "normal" for all her children, Karen has been fighting for change.

Through the journey, she has become a campaigner for tougher penalties for those who breach protection orders. This week she was in Wellington addressing a select committee.

Last year the fourth annual report from the Family Violence Death Review Committee revealed that between 2009 and 2012, 47 per cent of homicides were family violence related, and about 139 people died from family violence related deaths.

The report says: "Family violence is likely to be a cumulative pattern of harm, rather than a one off- incident. It's not just about physical assaults, but about possessiveness and controlling partners."

Of the 63 intimate partner violence deaths, at least half took place during a planned or actual separation.

If anyone knows the ripple effects of domestic and family violence, it's Karen.

Cradling a coffee cup in her hands, Karen glances out the window.

"I protected her and provided for her and just wanted the best for her. Her dreams of becoming a chef were gone. He killed her career straight away and then he killed her."

Karen has gathered together Ashlee's personal things, including her toys, jewellery and art work, and made a memory box for the two girls.

The red photo albums will make up the box, too. Her daughters will learn about their mum.

"Ashlee was a fun-loving kid, with a heart of gold. She would look for the good in everything and was a real kind soul," Karen smiles.

"She was an average Kiwi kid who met absolutely the worst kind of man."