Six-year-old waits for her slain father

5.30pm

A display of emotion from the daughter of Faletoi Kei brought tough South Auckland homicide police to the verge of tears.

The six-year-old down's syndrome girl has been constantly kissing the picture of her slain father.

Police are unsure if Stacey-Rita Kei fully understands the enormity of what has happened, but say her other sister Anne, 16, who also has down's syndrome, and her brother, Ofisa, 12, are shattered.

They are all trying to fathom the brutal slaying of a devoted and fun-loving family man and devout Seventh Day Adventist.

Stacey-Rita is waiting for her father to come home.

Yesterday police said that when they returned the family's van to their Mangere home, she ran to it calling "Daddy, Daddy."

The family tried to explain he would never come home but Stacey-Rita is still waiting.

Like the rest of the family members, Mr Kei's children have hardly stopped crying since Sunday afternoon, when a solidly built Maori man with a beard and tattoos on his left arm, stabbed Mr Kei, 41, in the stomach at Omana Park, near Maraetai, 25km south east of Auckland.

Mr Kei died in the arms of his wife Seluia managing only to utter her name before he stopped breathing.

The family had been at a family picnic for Mr Kei's elderly parents who had just arrived from Samoa.

Mr Kei was an elder in the Samoan Seventh Day Adventist Church at Mangere and led the church choir.

His cousin Tana Vaotuua, a pastor in the church, grew up with Mr Kei and regarded him as his brother.

Mr Vaotuua said Mr Kei was in good health but was not a strong man after a major kidney operation five years ago requiring regular dialysis treatment.

"The killer did not need to stab him to kill him. If he gave him a really good punch in the stomach, he would go."

Mr Vaotuua said the family was struggling to accept Mr Kei's death but was relying on faith to cope.

"We have got to accept he is dead, he is gone, but if God allowed him to die and he had a good relationship with the Lord, he is only sleeping in the arms of Jesus until Jesus comes again."

While it was hard to accept what had happened, the family was not questioning their commitment to their faith .

He said the family had prepared once for Mr Kei's death five years ago, when he was very sick with kidney disease. His life was saved by the kidney operation.

The family had gathered together and no one was left to cope alone, said Mr Vaotuua.

Joe Tesese, Mr Kei's pastor of four months at the Mangere Samoan Seventh Day Adventist Church, said he was shocked and saddened at the death of Mr Kei.

He said it would be natural to feel ill towards the killer but that would not have been Mr Kei's way. He would have forgiven the man.

Police believe the killer may be mentally ill and visited psychiatric institutions to check if any patients matched the killer's description.

Detective Sergeant Paul Bason said because the attack was random and unprovoked it may indicate the killer needed urgent help.

"It could be possible the killer is attached to a mental institution or it could be that he has not sought help yet and is living next door to someone."

Police have appealed for information on the killer and his light blue Holden Commodore, possibly a VN model, made in the early 1990s. The police hotline for information is 0800 Opomana (0800 676 6262).

- NZPA