The night Dad was bashed to death

Lucci Hennah. Photo / Richard Robinson.

When her drug-dealing father was murdered in the early hours of the morning, Lucci Hennah woke bolt upright in her bed.

She fell back to sleep, waking later to find that Phillip Hennah, 48, had been beaten to death with a metal bar in the driveway of his Waihi home.

Just 19, Lucci travelled from Whangarei to the house she grew up in, now the scene of a brutal assault.

"We drove down in absolute silence. All I could think was: 'Dad's not going to see me at my 21st. Dad's not going to walk me down the aisle'," said Lucci.

"The driveway was roped off and I remember being held back by the security guard, my partner, my family. Because all I wanted to do was see Dad."

Nearly five years later, no one has been charged with Mr Hennah's murder.

The police inquiry was hampered by heavy rain on the night of December 4, 2004, that washed away much of the evidence.

Faint traces of partial DNA samples on the 80cm metal bar believed to be the murder weapon hold the key to the unsolved killing.

Now 23, Lucci Hennah contacted the Weekend Herald after reading articles and personal stories in the week-long series on methamphetamine.

Her father was a P dealer and addict and she believed his murder was connected to a drug deal gone wrong with gang members.

"The detectives found $150 in Dad's wallet, a delivery fee amount. That's when they started talking about P and gangs," said Lucci.

"Despite growing up around drugs, I was very naive to that world. I didn't think something like that could happen."

In the days after Mr Hennah was murdered, a relative received an anonymous phone call to say the death was an accident - "sorry, it was only supposed to be a hiding or something like that", said Lucci.

Detective Simon Everson of the Waihi CIB confirmed partial DNA traces were found on the 80cm bar.

Lucci hopes the DNA samples could one day help to solve the murder. "The lack of closure is the hardest part because there are constant reminders. You try to move on, but you get knocked back," said Lucci. "But it's not going to bring Dad back. I've got to live with this for the rest of my life."

Now training to be an early-childhood teacher in Auckland, Lucci said she wanted to share her story to show people there was hope for those growing up around drugs.

"I didn't choose to have my Dad as a drug dealer. My role as a teacher is to give the children my best every day. To show them you can do something with your life, you don't have to follow in the footsteps of your family."

Her mother died from breast cancer a few months before Lucci turned 5, so she went to Auckland to live with relatives for several years, before returning to live with her father and his new wife for the early years of high school.

"I'd be walking home from school and get a text from a friend saying: 'Thanks a lot Lucci, the street is blocked off and I can't get home.' The police would be raiding our house. We got raided five times in one week. It was quite embarrassing."

When she was 17, Lucci moved to Whangarei to live with another relative. Coming down with the flu, she remembers walking into a pharmacy to buy some cold medicine that contained pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient for P.

"I handed over my ID and expected alarm bells to go off, but she just wrote my name in the register. I remember walking out and thinking, 'You just sold to a drug dealer's daughter'."

By this point, Phillip Hennah was heavily involved in dealing and smoking P in Waihi, said Lucci.

She drove down to see him for his 48th birthday in August 2004. It would be the last time she saw her father alive.

Lucci urges anyone whose family is affected by methamphetamine to take action. "Whanau has to step in. If you know P is happening in your family, get those kids out. We need to show these kids that there is a better world, better opportunities, a better life. P is a problem for everyone."

Anyone with information on Phillip Hennah's murder can contact Waihi police on (07) 863-8179.