By TONY WALL
Brett Muirson and his son Shaun will never forget the day they were driving along a quiet country road and came across a murder in progress.
The pair passed by as Black Power associate Shane Hoko was strangling and drowning hitchhiker Jennifer Hargreaves in a drain in Cuff
Rd, Patumahoe.
Mr Muirson, a panelbeater and volunteer firefighter, tried to intervene but Hoko pointed a gun at him and he was forced to "high-tail it" in his van.
He later returned to the 17-year-old's lifeless body and apologised for not being able to do more.
Mr Muirson and Shaun, 13, returned to the scene this week after Hoko was found guilty of murder at the end of a trial in the High Court at Auckland.
Jennifer's friends have built a shrine by the drain, with a white cross and flowers.
The Muirsons live in nearby Patumahoe but do not pass by the spot often any more. On seeing the shrine, they say, memories flooded back of that awful day last December.
Mr Muirson never met Jennifer, of nearby Karaka, while she was alive, but now feels a "special bond" with her and her family.
"She'll always be with me ... They [the Hargreaves] are like part of our family now."
The Muirsons' encounter with the man they describe as a "mongrel" happened after Jennifer, an old girl of Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland, had set out on December 3 to hitchhike to Invercargill to meet her birth mother.
Her boyfriend, Mark West, had stayed up until 6am trying to convince her not to hitchhike, but she would not listen.
Jennifer stuck out her thumb in Papakura and was picked up by Hoko - a ex-inmate who was on parole for his part in a home invasion in Meremere in 1999 in which a woman was raped. Hoko was a distinctive figure - he had lost half his left arm to cancer.
Instead of taking Jennifer south, Hoko and an associate took her to a house in Papakura. Hoko later said he would take her home, but drove her to Cuff Rd.
Mr Muirson was on his way to pick up his younger son, Brad, about 4.45pm when he saw a green car parked by the side of the road and a man straddling someone in a ditch.
He felt it "didn't look right" so hurried to pick up Brad and returned a few minutes later.
Because he had his sons with him, Mr Muirson did not get out of the van, but yelled out "she'd better be alive". He believes now that Jennifer was already dead.
Hoko said it was his "missus" and began kissing her. Mr Muirson told Hoko he had already called police, which seemed to make Hoko panic. He went to his car, got a gun and pointed it at the family.
Shaun and Brad started screaming and Mr Muirson reversed the van several hundred metres.
He went into a house and called 111 while Hoko sped off in his car.
Mr Muirson returned to the scene and said to Jennifer's lifeless body: "I'm sorry, I wish I could have done more for you."
He has often thought about whether he could have done anything differently. He believes that had he been alone, he would have got out of the van and confronted Hoko.
To the Hargreaves family, Mr Muirson is a hero. "We just thank him from the bottom of our hearts," said Jennifer's mother, Val.
The officer in charge of the case, Detective Sergeant Dave French, said Mr Muirson had done all he could for Jennifer in the circumstances.
"I think very highly of Brett and his family - they are wonderful people. I think a lot of people would have just kept driving, but Brett went back."
By TONY WALL
Brett Muirson and his son Shaun will never forget the day they were driving along a quiet country road and came across a murder in progress.
The pair passed by as Black Power associate Shane Hoko was strangling and drowning hitchhiker Jennifer Hargreaves in a drain in Cuff
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