Emma Field's body was found following a fire that ripped through her New Plymouth flat on May 27, 2022. Now, her partner Leigh Matthew Frederick Beer is on trial for her alleged murder and arson.
WARNING: Some readers may find the details of this story distressing
It had been a long time since Emma Field and her parents had been out together, just the three of them.
They picked up their daughter and took her out for lunch and then wandered through car yards on the promise of buying her a new vehicle.
Afterwards, they dropped her back at the flat she shared with her partner but before she got out of the car, Field kissed her parents on the cheek and said she loved them.
“Then she went off on her merry way,” her father, Erin Field, recalled as he fought back tears in court.
It was the last time they saw their daughter alive.
By the end of that day, on May 27, 2022, Field’s unrecognisable remains were discovered on her bedroom floor with her bed flipped, partly on top of her, and completely torched.
The 21-year-old died in the New Plymouth basement flat she shared with her partner, Leigh Matthew Frederick Beer, after a fire tore through their home.
Field was alive but likely unconscious when the blaze took hold.
The Crown has alleged Beer, in a fit of anger, overturned the bed she was asleep on, set fire to it, and “left her to burn to death”.
The 33-year-old is defending charges of murder, arson, and injuring with intent to injure in a trial in the High Court at New Plymouth.
He has maintained he did not overturn the bed or set fire to it, and his defence counsel has told the jury on his behalf it was possible someone else was responsible for the tragedy.
After the Crown and defence gave their openings yesterday, Field’s parents, Kylie and Erin Field, gave evidence.
Kylie recalled taking her daughter to lunch on the day of the fatal fire, describing the get-together as “awesome”.
She became emotional when a CCTV image showed them walking into the restaurant.
“It was the first time we’ve been able to do that, just her and I and Erin, in a long time.”
They looked at cars and also went to Specsavers to sort out Field’s scratched lenses.
Then the Fields dropped their daughter back at her Devon St West flat.
“She leaned forward, gave me a kiss and said ‘I love you and goodbye’, and the same to Erin. Then she got out of the ute and walked off.”
Later that day, texts were exchanged between Kylie and Field, with Kylie thanking her daughter for their lunch date and saying they needed to do it again.
“That was the last time we messaged.”
At home, Field and Beer spent the afternoon drinking together. Two friends, Teoke Taylor and Qwintin Tuari, later came over and the four of them listened to music, drank and shared an ecstasy pill.
They planned to head into town but that never eventuated.
Instead, Field went to bed after being allegedly subjected to unkind comments about her appearance made by Beer in front of their friends.
The Crown alleged Beer grew angry as the night wore on and “out of the blue,” he punched a glass window, causing blood to splatter throughout his doorway.
From the witness box, Kylie recalled having a good relationship with her daughter, who confided in her about her relationship with Beer.
She believed the couple got along well and rarely fought.
“It was the happiest I’d seen Emma in a really long time.”
Erin echoed his wife, stating their daughter had previously been in difficult relationships that included controlling partners and domestic violence.
However, he said Beer was good to Field and “brought her back to my old Emma”.
Following her death, the Fields visited Beer at the hospital and later allowed him to stay with them.
Erin also attended a police interview with Beer as his support person.
“I was there to support Leigh. To my understanding, he did all he could to help Emma.
“I remember saying in my statement that I would stand by him until I was proven otherwise, I had no reason not to.”
Today, Michael King and Lianna Waters, owners of the century-old property that was divided into four flats, gave evidence.
They answered questions relating to repairs at the property, furnishings and smoke alarms.
Waters also gave evidence about how she and King had been alerted to the fire and attended the scene as the emergency continued.
She saw smoke billowing from the basement flat’s broken windows and was “stunned” by the seriousness of the situation.
Waters said she heard screaming and after moving to see who it was, she saw Beer kneeling on the road.
She said he was alone and screaming Field’s name and appeared to be banging his head on the road.
“It was quite harrowing,” she said.
Waters fought back tears as she recalled wanting to comfort Beer but said when she tried to run toward him, a police officer told her not to go any closer.
“I just wanted someone to help him.”
Following the fire, Beer met with Waters to sort documentation relating to his bond. She said she took the opportunity to ask him what had happened and he told her “I don’t remember”.
During cross-examination, defence lawyer Julian Hannam asked Waters if she had heard from another tenant that people had been climbing a fence to get on their property from the Braemar Motor Inn, an emergency housing provider that bordered the flats.
Waters said she had been told, but had not seen it happen herself.
Police Constable Chelsea Aim then took the stand and spoke on CCTV footage she had collated, creating a timeline of events on the day of the fire.
The trial is scheduled to take at least three weeks and the Crown has indicated it will call around 60 witnesses.
Tara Shaskey joined NZME in 2022 as a news director and Open Justice reporter. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked at Stuff covering crime and justice, arts and entertainment, and Māori issues.