Time a slow healer for Kylie Jones' family

By SCOTT INGLIS

Kylie Jones was murdered a year ago on Wednesday - but for her family, it still feels like yesterday.

Her father, Barry Jones, told the Weekend Herald that he, wife Jeanette and the rest of his family still think about Kylie every day.

"It's no easier ... We've still got all the pictures around the house - we're not taking them down," he says. "It's just as vivid. I just get tears come to my eyes quite regularly still. And Jeanette ... we both have bad times, that's for sure."

Kylie, a 23-year-old Auckland journalist, was raped and stabbed in a lonely reserve just 80 paces opposite her home in Line Rd, Glen Innes, on June 6.

The murder of a young woman on her way home from work chilled the country.

Her killer, Taffy Herbert Hotene, was arrested four days afterwards and pleaded guilty.

Hotene, who had spent much of his life in prison, had been freed from jail two months before the murder, after serving a mandatory two-thirds of a 12-year rape sentence.

His criminal record made for terrifying reading - sex assaults, use of knives and offending soon after being released from prison were prominent features.

Hotene had been abandoned as a baby and had a poor upbringing, and it also emerged that he never wanted to leave prison.

A report found failings by the Community Probation Service, Psychological Service and the prison, but maintained that even if these had not occurred, Kylie's death probably could not have been prevented.

Hotene was sentenced to one of the country's toughest jail sentences - life with no parole for 18 years for murder, and preventive detention for rape.

Justice Barry Paterson said at the time that he doubted Hotene would ever be released.

Police are still tidying up their file on the case, but are satisfied as much as they can be that Hotene acted alone.

Mr Jones says he is more angry now about what happened to his daughter than at the time, when he was "just dumbfounded."

"I just think of the way she had to die. It was just so bloody awful."

The family still receive a lot of comfort and support from friends, and Kylie's friends have kept in close contact.

Kylie's sister Donna married in February.

"It went off really well but we just feel there's always a gap in our lives now."

The murder prompted Greg Stenbeck, the father of Kylie's fiancee, Aaron, to help campaign for changes to the justice system.

His family, too, are still grieving.

"That grief manifests in so many ways.

"Kylie could have been anyone's ideal sister, girlfriend or wife ... "

A Jones family friend says she hopes to have a lamp and garden put in at the entrance of the reserve where Kylie died in time for the anniversary on Wednesday.

The Jones family plan to spend the day at home at Matakana, north of Auckland, and visit Kylie's grave at the Matakana Cemetery.

A quarter of the family's 1.8ha property has been planted in native trees and fenced, with a memorial to Kylie.

They use it regularly.

Says Mr Jones: "It's a really pleasant place."